Infinite Blacklight
by ptabs0101
Summary: What if Alex Mercer met someone who gave him a chance to restore his faith in humanity? All he has to do is bring them the girl and wipe away the debt. BioShock Infinite and [Prototype] crossover.
1. The Job

AN: I am proud to present to you the first ever Prototype and BioShock: Infinite crossover. Not sure if Vigors would work on Alex since it was made for humans to use. Besides, he's already a one-man army so doesn't even need them.

This takes place after the first [Prototype] game and during the events of [Prototype 2]: The Anchor. It explains what happened to Alex to make him lose his faith in humanity.

This one-shot is dedicated to luigimalefico.

Infinite Blacklight

Humans were selfish.

That was the truth that Alex Mercer learned on his journey around the world for something to believe in. He realized that human beings only pretended to treat others with decency. All they cared about were their individual freedom and their lives.

He then returned to the US and liberated a small town from a drug cartel on his way. While the town celebrated their freedom from the cartel, Mercer knew that they celebrated their individual freedom and none of them cared about others. He traveled north and found many incidents of humans ignoring their own kind. He witnessed men killing innocent people for profit, families abusing their own kin, and corruption in every government establishment.

Mercer decided that he had enough of human interaction and chose a life of solitude.

He went further up north and rented a cabin. There, he had established a new face and identity with the money that he stole from the drug dealers he killed. He introduced himself as Jack to Flint and his daughter, Autumn, while renting a cabin from them.

If Mercer were to continue to live there, trouble would arrive in the form of Zurich, Flint's former business partner who wanted the lands around Flint's lumber mill.

Flint would then deny selling his land to him, making Zurich send two thugs to kill him and Autumn. However, Alex would intervene and kill Zurich himself. Alex will then discover through Zurich's memories that Flint was once a criminal involved in many murders and extortions. Enraged and disappointed, Alex would return to Flint's cabin and kill him despite Flint's insistence that he had left his past behind.

Still in disguise as Jack, Alex would return to his cabin to find Autumn there and attempt to convince her to come with him, only to discover that Autumn had stolen his money. Autumn will promptly shoot Alex in the face and reveal that her father had taught her better and that she cared about herself above anything else. To her surprise, however, Alex's regeneration would kick in, allowing him to consume her. He would finally decide once and for all that humanity was worthless and that it was his duty to destroy them and usher in a new and better world.

_That_ is what would have happened in that universe. But things for Alex Mercer in _this_ universe happened a bit differently.

00000

Alex Mercer was preparing himself for dinner at Flint's cabin when he heard the ringing of his cellphone. He frowned as he wondered who could be calling him since he didn't give anyone his number.

Only one person knew his number and that person were only supposed to call him when there was an emergency.

He picked up the receiver and placed it against his ear.

"Hello," he answered.

"Is this line secured?" a very familiar masculine voice asked.

"_Ragland?"_ Mercer almost blurted out the name of the scientist who helped him back in Manhattan. He had also left his comatose sister in the former Gentek scientist's hands. For almost two years, Dana's condition remained unchanged.

He wanted to check up on her everyday, but he knew that the military could trace the call and storm in on their location if any of their names were mentioned even for a second on an unsecured line.

"Give me a minute," the scientist told him. He then heard a click on the other line, "There, now we can talk without the government breathing down our necks."

"Is anything wrong with Dana? Did Blackwatch find her?" he growled, his biomass bristling at the thought of his baby sister in any danger. He may not care about humanity but he would always worry for her safety. He wouldn't have rescued her from Greene at the Infected Lair and detonated the nuke away from Manhattan if he felt otherwise.

"No but she doesn't have much time."

"Explain. Now."

And explain he did to the living bioweapon in hiding.

00000

Alex burst out the door before Ragland had a chance to finish his sentence. Not like the former Gentek scientist could since Alex crushed the cellphone in his hand.

The living bioweapon didn't care that he dismissed his Jack disguise and shifted back into Alex Mercer. He didn't care that people saw him sprint at superhuman speeds and perform spectacular feats without even trying. None of that mattered to him except for getting back to New York on time.

He didn't know or cared how long he ran, but he eventually reached his destination. He found Ragland's safe house in no time and he nearly tore the door off its hinges when he went inside. The doctor wisely jumped out of his way as he stomped to where Dana was being kept.

The room was sterile white with medical equipment by the walls. But he focused on the bed where his sister was in.

His breath that he didn't really need hitched up in his throat at the sight of her. Her skin had a very sickly pallor even more so than his skin. Every breath she took appeared to cause her intense agony and the bags around her eyes looked like they were permanent.

Alex barely heard Dr. Bradley Ragland giving him a more detailed explanation concerning Dana's illness as he knelt by her side. But he got the gist of it.

The virus that Greene had infected her with was causing her body to degenerate down to a genetic level. The way that the virus behaved was like cancer cells but a thousand times more potent. Any medical treatment only served to make her condition worse.

Dana was dying and there was nothing that he could do to stop it.

He could hear the consciousness of Elizabeth Greene laughing at his weakness. He could hear her gloating over his sister's imminent demise and her rant about how he should have joined the Infected when he had the chance.

He pushed the lingering consciousness of the former Infected Leader back down when he couldn't take it anymore. He then ran out the building in an attempt to clear his head.

"Dammit!" he exclaimed, stopping as he punched a nearby wall hard enough to shatter the bricks and mortar beneath it, "C'mon, there must be something that I could!"

There was one way though. He could infect Dana with the same virus that changed him. It could save her but he would be going against what he swore never to do and that was to spread the virus. He also couldn't turn his sister into the same monster that he was.

Dana was his last connection to humanity and the only reason why he didn't try to wipe out the humans. If he were to infect her, she will no longer be human. If she died, his last ounce of humanity will die with her. Damned if he did, damned if he don't.

"Think, Mercer! THINK!" he shouted as he smacked his palm against his forehead, causing loud bangs to echo around him, "C'MON! YOU SURVIVED A FUCKING NUKE SO WHY CAN'T YOU THINK OF A WAY TO SAVE HER!"

"Oh how the mighty have fallen," a female accented voice said, "It seems there are things that even Zeus can't hope to stand up against, brother."

"Give Dr. Mercer a break, sister," a male one this time chided, "Would you not feel the same if you ever lost me? I know I would if something were to happen to you."

He looked up to see a man and a woman. The man wore a fine sit with dark brown pants, a light tan overcoat, a dark tan vest underneath, white-collar shirt, and a blue tie. The woman was dressed identically with the only real differences was that she had an ankle length dark brown skirt. Both the man and woman had red hair and regarded the Prototype with blue eyes that betrayed no emotion. They looked like they were twins with the matching facial features so it was safe to assume that they probably were twins.

Alex didn't give a fuck that their clothes were very old-fashioned. He didn't give a fuck that these two somehow got close to him without him noticing. He didn't give a fuck that they knew who he really was. But there was one thing that he did give a fuck about.

"Who… are you?" he rasped out as he glared at them.

"You wish to know who we are when the more important question is where you're going," the woman said.

"I on the other hand, disagree with you, sister," the man who was obviously her brother remarked, "Dr. Mercer's question pertaining to who we are is just as important to where he will be going."

Tendrils snaked across his body as sprang up, reverting him to the hooded visage of Alex Mercer. But the tendrils didn't stop there as the Biomass in his arms shifted into 4-digited, talon-like appendages that can be used to shred flesh and bone.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU PEOPLE!" he roared as he crouched in a predatorily stance with claws extended, "AND WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME!"

"It is not about what we want from you," the woman retorted.

"It's about what you want from us," her brother added, catching Mercer off guard.

"What?" he snarled as his claws twitched in anticipation for blood.

"You went on a journey in search of faith in humanity and became very disappointed by what you saw."

"And now one of your last connections to human beings is about to be abruptly cut off."

Deciding that he heard enough, he pounced at them and swiped his claws for a swift dismemberment. He grinned in satisfaction as his talons cut through their flesh and bones.

"And that's that," he said, dismissing his claws.

"Guess again."

He turned his head so fast that it would have given an ordinary human whiplash. To his utter disbelief, the twins were still very much alive.

"What the hell…"

It was impossible. He could have sworn that he killed them. It hadn't been a minute since he felt his claws cut through their bodies like an apple. So why the hell were they still living!?

Angered at the continued existence of his preys, he brought out his claws again and began hacking away with homicidal determination.

No matter how much he tried; the twins weren't at all bothered by the many attempts on their lives. Even their clothes looked no different than what they first appeared in. In fact, they looked almost amused as he swiped at them with razor sharp claws.

"We could do this all day," the woman said, still capable of speech despite of the bladed appendage impaling her throat, "But can you?"

"Yes. Yes, he can," the man replied as Alex wrapped his claws around his head and crushed it, "You're forgetting that he doesn't need to rest like humans do."

"But he will tire of this eventually and ceased his attempts on our lives."

"What the hell are you two!?" he demanded as he buried his claws to the wrist in their chests.

The woman carried on, ignoring the arm that was sticking out of her torso. "Merely visitors. A wisp of smoke that is soon forgotten. But unlike smoke, we have far more purpose here than you know."

"And our purpose here is to offer you a choice. A chance to regain your faith in humanity."

Alex removed his claws from their chests and changed them back into hands since he figured it was futile to continue.

"Hmph, good luck with that," he scoffed as he crossed his arms.

"Would providing your sister with a cure for her condition be an excellent start?" the woman suggested, once again catching him off guard.

It seemed to good to be true. Just when his sister was dying, these two showed up with an offer to cure her. Even though he knew next to nothing about these twins, there was always one thing that everyone had: an ulterior motive.

"What's the catch?" he asked, tone laced with suspicion.

"It's simple really," the woman said as a shudder in the air passed over them before the very air pulled apart behind the twins as if the fabric of reality had just been torn asunder.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed, jumping back. He then bent his knees to a crouch as his right arm transformed into a giant blade that was as long as he was tall.

"Before you lies a chance to reconnect with humanity. Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt."

"But make sure that you bring the girl back in one piece so no mutilation of any kind and that includes consuming," her twin added.

He straightened himself up while changing his arm back to normal. "So you want me to walk into a hole that leads to God only knows where and bring you some girl relatively unharmed? Is that it?"

"That is all worth mentioning at the moment if you accept."

"…I do this and you guys can cure Dana?"

"That is correct."

Normally, he wouldn't trust anyone shady like these twins but he figured that he didn't have much to lose since they clearly weren't human. Or at least not anymore.

"Let's get this over with," Alex said as he walked past them.

"Enjoy your time in Columbia, Dr. Mercer," was the last thing that he heard before stepping through the tear in reality and didn't look back.


	2. The City

AN:

There! You twisted my arm! You people happy! Now you'll get your story of Alex Mercer in Columbia.

Chapter 2

Alex Mercer didn't know what to expect where the Tear would take him to but he certainly didn't expect to be under several meters of very cold seawater. Blacklight was a virus that had a very strong dislike of water so it immediately objected to the contact and caused the biomass that constituted his form to squirm.

Mercer immediately made for the surface. To his distaste as he reached the surface, it was raining pretty hard while waves crashed violently against his body in an attempt to sink him.

Oh boy, was the Blacklight incarnate pissed beyond measure. When he sees those twins again, he will give them a piece of his mind and maybe cut off a piece of them while he's at it.

It was a relief to see a rather tall tower nearby. It was nothing on par with what New York had, but it was still fairly tall nevertheless. This monolith was relatively unadorned except for the steady white light at the top. It was strange that a lighthouse didn't have a regular pulsing pattern to it.

He pushed that thought aside in favor of getting to somewhere dry so he quickly swam towards the lighthouse.

With a shudder, Zeus pulled himself out of the ocean and onto the stairs next to the tower's base. He made a dash to the door and broke it down in his haste to get out of the rain. With a flick of biomass, he cleared his form of any water that still clung unto him. After getting his bearings back, he took a moment to observe the room that he was in.

The lighthouse interior wasn't what you would expect in any lighthouse on the mainland. The room had wooden floors and a warm atmosphere that felt welcoming to a human. But Alex Mercer was only human in appearance.

Right in front of the door under the central pillar of the tower, a small table was set up with a water basin on the center, a lit candle on the right side, and a couple of white wash cloths on the left. A frame hung above the table with a sign made of cloth and stitching that read: "Of Thy Sins, Shall I Wash Thee".

"I'll pass," Alex scoffed. He already had enough water for today, thank you very much.

He made his way towards the stairs. Another sign similar to the one hanging above the water basin was on the wall next to the stairwell. This one read: "From Sodom, Shall I Lead Thee".

Religion was a joke in Mercer's opinion. It was just a group full of Neanderthals. The only reason why people go to church was because they want to go to heaven and not to hell. They were only thinking about themselves and they helped others for their own benefit.

(AN: I apologize to any religious folks out there if this offended you. This is simply Alex's opinion about religion since he thinks all humans are selfish. This is not my personal opinion so please don't hate me.)

He shook his head as he ascended the metal steps slowly.

Reaching the landing, he saw a large room that took up the entire floor. Tables, desk, a large sink, a bed, and several crates were stacked up along one of the walls with a couple of lamps on the walls above, illuminating everything.

He set his eyes on the object that was placed on the bed. A stained, oak wood box sat in the center of the mattress, looking out of place. He picked the box up and saw the shiny brass nameplate on the lid.

Mercer's eyes narrowed from under his hood when he saw his name in perfectly inscribed calligraphy.

The only possible conclusion that he could come to was that those two left this for him.

He lifted the lid and looked at the contents. Inside were several things. Under the lid, two papers were taped, one looked like a postcard with a golden statue of an angel that had her arms outstretched. The other one next to it was a blank paper with symbols and numbers written on it; from left to right, there was an open scroll with X1 next to it, a key with X2 next to it, and a saber facing blade-down with X2 next to it.

Setting that aside for the moment, he looked at the rest of the box and was intrigued to see an iron key. Picking it up, the sentient virus examined it with careful eyes. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it other than the pictures on the handle. One side depicted a bird flying free while the other had an empty birdcage.

The last content was a photograph of a young woman.

He picked up the black and white picture of a young woman that looked around the same age as Dana wearing a white blouse and a long blue skirt. The name "Elizabeth" was written at the top.

He flipped the picture over to see the words: "Find her, protect her" printed on the back.

"This must be the girl they want me to bring to them," he muttered, taking one last look at the photograph before storing the items inside biomass. He then went up the next flight of stairs. He had to step over an overturned table and broken plates as he ascended to the next floor.

A lone light shined down on a man tied to a chair with a burlap bag over his head. Blood pooled down on the floor under him and running toward the stairs and several splatters on the wall behind him.

Alex gave an indifferent glance at the obviously dead man's body due to having done far worse than this. He snorted at the supposed warning note that was pinned to the man's shirt. Of course things were going to get worse. He was about to get involved after all.

He ignored the corpse and walked towards another flight of stairs.

The farther up that he went, Mercer noticed that he was nearing the top of the lighthouse and was now outside. The storm was now going strong, lightning and thunder clapped in the distance as heavy raindrops struck the tower's frame and his body to his displeasure.

Alex reached the top of the lighthouse to see a door on his left leading into where the spotlight of the tower was located. He remembered that this was where the pod-like object was located.

In the center of the door was a statue of an angel with her arms opened. Three bells were lined in front with symbols carved into it.

"Hm, this looks familiar," the Prototype recognized the symbols on the bells. He pulled the paper with the same markings written on it.

Giving one last look at the paper, he flicked the bell with the open scroll first by using finger. Going to the middle bell, the one with a key, he struck it twice. Moving to the last bell, he hit it twice like the one before and waited.

At first nothing happened then the skies lit up a bright red and let out a loud horn that drowned out the sound of the storm.

Alex spun around with his claws out and looked up the sky as more loud horns resounded through the air.

"The fuck is going on!?" he shouted over the bellowing before it soon came to an end.

Mechanics within the lighthouse started churning. The large light in the center opened up and slid up, allowing the floor to flip over to reveal a red barbers chair where it had been set up.

Stepping in cautiously out of the rain, he walked around the chair and saw nothing special about but looks can be deceiving.

Shrugging and shifting his claws back into hands, he settled down on the comfortable seat.

"Hey!" he exclaimed in surprise as restraints snapped shut around his wrists, torso, and ankles.

"**Make yourself ready, pilgrim. The bindings are there as a safeguard,"** a female voice spoke from nearby loud speakers as he easily broke out of the bindings with his superhuman strength. Then several small walls came out of the floor surrounding the chair before coming together and sealing it up tightly.

The floor suddenly dropped open, forcing Alex to shoot out black spikes from his hands and impale the walls with them so he won't fall into the rockets that were beginning to fire up.

"**Ascension…Ascension in the count of FIVE…countdown of FOUR..."** the floor righted itself back to its original position as the whole lighthouse started to shake. **"THREE…TWO…"**

"Shit!" he swore as the trembling increased in intensity.

He didn't trust the chair to keep him safe so he continued to cling unto the walls until he felt safe enough to let go.

"**ONE…"** the pod was launched from the top of the tower and was shot into the sky.

The viral abomination grunted as the force of the launch pressed down on him.

"**Ascension…Ascension…"** Alex was cursing up a storm as he saw the clouds outside slipping by.

"**Five thousand feet…ten thousand feet…fifteen thousand feet…"** the pod broke through the clouds, blinding him as the sun was suddenly revealed. When the light died down a little, he looked out of the porthole in front of him and felt his jaw dropped.

Outside was a city...FLOATING IN THE GODDAMN SKY!

He could only stare at the magnificent sight before him in complete awe. He forgot everything that had happened up to now. It was beautiful. Each cluster of buildings seemed to be connected by a railway and gondola system. Airships and blimps drifted around the island-like structures as they hovered above the clouds.

The Prototype was struck speechless. He thought he knew every dirty secret that the world could offer him from all the high-ranking officials that he consumed but apparently not since he had no idea that something like this existed until now.

The pod continued move amongst the buildings. One of them floated by, showing a poster that depicted an old man with shoulder length white hair and beard with "Father Comstock, Our Prophet" displayed proudly on it.

The man bore a regal atmosphere befitting of a title such as "Prophet" but Alex simply saw him as some religious nut job.

Not a few seconds later, the pod perched on top of a building and was slowly lowered inside, passing scaffoldings with words that were illuminated by the sun.

_Why Would He Send His Savior Unto Us_

_If We Will Not Raise A Finger For Our Own Salvation_

_And Though We Deserved Not His Mercy_

_He Has Led Us To This New Eden_

_A Last Chance For Redemption_

Reading each statement, he couldn't help but wonder what kind place was this and how the hell did he get here. As the pod continued to lower, a large stained glass image was shown with the sun shining through it. The image of the same man that he saw on the poster before was standing tall with people surrounding him in prayer and a banner above him that said "And The Prophet Shall Lead The People To The New Eden."

Everything came to a stop. The front wall of the pod hissed and slowly opened to the inside of what looked like a church. He slid the black spikes back into his biomass, allowing him to exit the pod.

He stepped out of the chamber and nearly took another step forward before he noticed that the whole floor was covered in water. He quickly pulled his foot back and almost hissed at the offending liquid.

There was no way that he would put his foot in the water let alone walk around in it.

He noticed an open window that he could use as an exit a few feet above him. Focusing the biomass in his legs, he jumped up to it and began to make his way through the city in the sky.

00000

After consuming an unsuspecting civilian and taking on his appearance, Alex was able to find out a few important details about Columbia from the man's memories. One, Zachary Comstock, the so-called prophet founded the city. Two, the people here actually worship Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. Three, there was a rebel group known as the Vox Populi, which was Latin for "Voice of the People". Four, there was some sort of fair going on so everything was free. Five, everyone believed in Anglo-Saxon supremacy so they were basically racists. Lastly, it was the year 1912.

He ruled out the possibility that he somehow traveled through time since there were no records of a floating city so he came to the conclusion that he was in an alternate timeline.

He would have claimed that all of these things were impossible if it wasn't for the many impossible things that he could do so he was willing to keep an open mind.

Honestly, he wasn't that much surprised by what he found out. If someone can rip a hole in the very fabric of reality, then it was likely that he was in an alternate timeline or universe.

He walked along the bustling streets of the floating town like he lived there his whole life (technically the man whose face that he was currently wearing did). He didn't bother to stop and stare at his surroundings because he already knew what they looked like.

Eventually, Alex came to a stop among a group of people who were waiting for a gate at the end of the island-like ship to open and allowed them passage. A parade of airships with floats on top of them drifted by, depicting everything that Comstock had done for the citizens of Columbia.

The last float caught his attention. It showed Comstock holding a child in his arms with a woman holding his arm. The banner under the image said, "A Miracle Child is Born. The Future of the City is Secured!"

He heard the narrator of the parade mentioned that the Lamb was the future of the city and she was to lead the Sodom Below into righteousness.

The Prototype couldn't care less for any this crap as the parade finally passed by and a bridge came up, connecting the islands together.

He moved along with crowds with none being the wiser. He saw a large statue of an angel with her arms outstretched that towered over the city like a guardian watching over them as he went past the various shops and stands that were opened.

Digging around his biomass, Alex pulled out the postcard that he had gotten from the box and saw that it was a match.

"Monument Island, huh?" he said to himself before looking back to the tower, "Guess that's where she's being kept."

"Telegram for Mr. Mercer!" Alex jumped in surprise and he was about to ripple his biomass before looking down to see a little kid holding out a letter for him.

"Telegram for you, sir!" the boy said as he snatched the letter from his hands. The kid ran without another word.

Alex turned the card over and started to read.

"Alexander Mercer STOP"

"Do not alert Comstock to your presence STOP."

"Whatever you do, do not pick #77 STOP."

"Lutece"

He looked back at the monument before continuing on his walk. Tendrils crawled up his hand and tore the letter to shreds. He willed the tentacles to slither back into his biomass, letting the shredded pieces drift away through the wind.

He already knew that he shouldn't alert this Comstock character but the bit about picking number seventy-seven was what caught his mind. What was so important about the number seventy-seven?

A few minutes later, he found himself stepping into a fair that had been set up for the festival going on. Stands of food, arcade games, and people selling various items were set up everywhere as crowds gathered at each one.

Alex found himself disgusted by all the merriments. He always hated the loud obnoxious noises of a festival. It was a trait that the original Alex Mercer had and one that he seemed to inherit.

There was one thing though that piqued his interest.

He watched performers shoot out lightning and fire from out of their hands. He could tell that they weren't using special effects with his superhuman senses.

The audience watched the performance with amazement while Alex, on the other hand, saw so much potential if he were to wield these…"Vigors". If he was powerful before, just wait until he gets tentacles on one of those Vigors and combine it with his Blacklight powers.

He could have Electric-Claws, Burning-Whipfist or maybe even Fire-Hammerfists. The possibilities were endless.

However, Vigors could be a potential threat. If a bunch of actors were paid to advertise them, there was a high chance that the soldiers here had something even more potent than the ones you could easily buy.

He wanted to consume one of the actors so he could get his powers but there were too many witnesses and it didn't look they were going to be done any time soon.

Don't get him wrong. He wouldn't bat an eye if some citizens get caught in the crossfire but starting a ruckus will alert that Comstock character to his presence. And he guessed that staying under the prick's radar would let him reach his goal faster.

He moved on and made his way to the fair. He ignored the numerous stands that were giving away free food and drinks and the row of games as he moved.

Alex froze when he saw the "Guardian".

A giant of a man stood on top of the stage while flexing his tremendous muscles for the whole audience to see. He was covered in thick bronze armor while he wore a blue coat over it. The crowd cheered as the man lifted a massive barbell over his head.

(AN: Just imagine a combination of a Super Soldier from Prototype and a Handyman.)

The Prototype activated his Infected Vision to confirm his suspicions. True to what he assumed, the man was infected by a variant of the Blacklight Virus, which was most likely the source for all of his strength.

He didn't know what he should be more wary about: fighting D-code Soldiers again or the existence of the Virus here in Columbia.

The tension increased in his biomass when he made eye contact with the Guardian. The man narrowed his eyes at him as if he could see through his disguise. Considering that the Super Soldiers of Blackwatch had built-in viral scanners, it could be the case.

A bright flash of a camera distracted the Columbian Super Soldier, giving Mercer enough time to slip away from the crowd.

"Hey Mister!" a sultry looking saleslady called out to him. The woman was carrying a basket full of bottles that he recognized as Vigors. He grabbed a bottle and chugged it down the moment he heard: "free sample".

He waited for the Vigor to work its magic and give him a new power but instead his biomass immediately began to reject the foreign substance. He had to expel the Vigor along with some of his biomass through his mouth. To a normal human, it would look like he was throwing up his lunch.

"Are you alright, sir?" the lady looked at him in concern.

Of course he wasn't "alright". It was like he drank a bottle of bloodtox with a side of the parasite that the Specialist, Cross, injected him with.

Inwardly, he was grimacing but on the outside, he gave the woman a small reassuring smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was expecting to get a new power. Not that."

"I'm so sorry, sir," the woman placed the basket down and handed him a handkerchief, which he accepted to look grateful.

"Something like this never happened to anyone before well except for…" she trailed off, lost in thought.

"You mean this did happen to someone before?" he asked, snapping the woman out of her thoughts. He might find out the reason why his body rejected the Vigor if he knew this.

"Well, the same thing occurred whenever one of the Guardians tries to take in another Vigor."

"Do you know why?"

"All I know is that the Vigor used to changed a person into a Guardian prevents other Vigors from taking effect," she shrugged.

"I see," he nodded in understanding as the many scientists within his head theorized that the virus in a Guardian prevented them from getting the powers of Vigors. Being a product of the same virus, Alex was no exception to the rule.

Drinking them straight up was a no go but maybe consuming someone that does wield a Vigor could give him the desired results. He couldn't wait to find out.

"Again, I'm really sorry about this," she continued, before taking out a card, "So let me make it up to you."

"Here, this is a free ticket to the raffle later," she handed it to him, "Just show it to the automaton stationed at the gate and it will let you pass."

"Much obliged, ma'am," the Prototype in disguise thanked her as he took the ticket from her.

He approached the gate with the robotic vending machine blocking it. The automaton quickly let him through once he showed the ticket. On the other side was a small courtyard and standing before him was the man and woman from before. The man held a chalkboard with a Heads/Tails tally mark written on it while the woman held a silver plate with a coin on it.

Remembering the dip in the ocean, Alex had to make a conscious effort to reel in his biomass. He didn't want to cause a scene. Yet.

"Greetings, Dr. Mercer. Let us properly introduce ourselves. My name is Robert Lutece and this is my sister, Rosalind Lutece," the man told him in a monotone voice, "Which side will you choose? Heads?"

"Or tails?" said the woman as she tossed the coin to him.

He caught the penny and squeezed it with his superhuman strength. He let the crumpled piece of metal fall to the ground. He then crushed it further by stomping his foot on top of it.

"Go fuck yourselves," was the answer that he gave them.

"There is no need for such vulgar language," the woman frowned, looking a tad bit insulted. Mercer mentally cheered at eliciting a reaction out of the expressionless woman.

"I expected much more from someone of your profession, Dr. Mercer," Robert nodded in agreement with his twin.

"Tell that to someone who gives a fuck," the scientist-turned-viral abomination retorted, "Just tell me what's so special about this girl if you willing to hire _me_ to bring her to you."

"You will eventually uncover that bit of information yourself," Rosalind told him.

"And to be frank, you were not our first choice," the man added, "And you were not the first one that we tasked to retrieve the girl either."

"I'm actually interested in what kind of people you hired before me," Alex admitted, truly curious since he wasn't the twins' first choice.

"Oh, just an ex-Pinkerton agent." (Booker DeWitt)

"An Assassin from an ancient order." (Andrew Daniels[OC] from The False Shepherds by Andrew Auditore)

"A supposedly deceased superhero." (Kid Flash from Limitless by StarKnight2.0)

"A demi-god." (Percy Jackson from Vigorous Restitution by TheDaedricPrinceOfCrossovers)

"And don't forget about the cyborg ninja." (Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Infinite by yours truly)

(AN: Look these stories or the authors up if you want to check them out later.)

"A demi-god and a cyborg what now?" the Prototype repeated, not sure if he heard the last one right.

He understood why they hired an ex-Pinkerton agent and an assassin because of their skillset. Hell, even the thing about the dead superhero made sense to him. But a demi-god and a cyborg ninja were kind of pushing it.

"Never mind. I don't wanna know," he raised a hand to stop the twins from continuing. He sighed before continuing, "Is there anything else I should know?"

"We will offer you aid in your quest," Rosalind said, "However, we can only offer support from behind the scenes. You will have to do the rest on your own with your…abilities being your guide."

"And do try to keep Columbia mostly intact while you're at it. If the structural integrity receives too much damage, what keeps it afloat will cease to function," Robert said, "Even though you can survive the destruction, you could at least put some effort to prevent that."

"One more thing you should keep in mind."

"What's that?" Mercer asked.

"You should avoid consuming anyone that possesses a Vigor."

"Why is that?" he frowned.

"As far as the Blacklight Virus is concerned, any DNA altered by Vigors is considered rubbish and shall be swiftly removed."

"So that means your unique physiology prevents Vigors from working on you."

"Aw, I was looking forward to shooting out lightning from my hands," he lowered his head in disappointment.

"Chin up, Dr. Mercer," he felt soft slim fingers flick his chin up, "You now have an opportunity to explore your own powers and use them in new ways."

"There wasn't a need for you to upgrade your powers during your travels like in Outbreak but that didn't stop your body from evolving. From adapting."

'Hmm, interesting," he commented, wondering what were latest abilities that he developed. He stared at his hand as he thought about it. His body still continued to evolve and making him even more superior to humanity.

Over time, he noticed some changes to his abilities. His speed and agility had increased exponentially, allowing him to glide longer and jump over tall buildings with a single bound. His armor became thicker yet doesn't hinder his agility anymore. He could now simultaneously produce two shields that were strong enough to endure any attack. He also developed a mysterious yet potent viral sonar sense, which allows him to pinpoint a target in crowded area.

It seemed that he was truly the Apex Predator.

"Now how am I-what the?" he turned back to the twins, as he was about to ask them how was he supposed to reach his destination only to find no one there.

"So that's what it feels like," Alex Mercer said to himself, recalling all the other times that he appeared and disappeared without warning in front of others. No wonder Dana found it annoying.

He walked down the cobblestone walkway. He made sure to keep the angel-shaped tower in sight so he would know if he was going the right way or not.

As he passed by a couple of police officers, he saw that one of them had a device attached to his arm with three hooks on the end that was whirling like a saw blade. It looked like some kind of weapon but he didn't really see the practical use that it had in battle so there must be more to it than it appeared to be.

Memories surged to his mind, showing him what the device was used for.

The device was called a Sky-Hook. Sky-Hooks are powerfully magnetized to the freight hooks and Sky-Lines in Columbia, allowing their users to make death-defying leaps from point-to-point with the knowledge that they will automatically latch on. Additionally, the Sky-Hook's bladed scoops and rotary motor allow it to be used as a lethal melee weapon.

The Prototype certainly saw how useful the Sky-Hook could be but he personally thought his method of traveling was a lot more efficient.

However, the design of the Sky-Hook gave him an idea to incorporate its bladed scoops and rotary motion to his Whipfist should he ever have to use one.

Remembering what the twins said about experimenting with his powers, he jumped to a rooftop to experiment with no witnesses. With a mental flick, he dismissed the man's skin and let his hooded façade shimmer back into place. The biomass in his right arm shifted to a thin, flexible, blade-edged arm with two blades that were capable of grabbing people and objects at the end. He tried to alter the biomass at the end to mimic the Sky-Hook. After a few minutes of biomass transforming to fit what he had in mind, he was rewarded with a success.

Like all of the other weapons that he created from his body, the Sky-Hookfist had an organic look to it. He willed the three hooks to twirl and he was pleased to see that it worked. He may not be able to imitate the magnets of a Sky-Hook but stretching his arm up to long distances compensated for it.

Transforming back into his disguise, he dropped down and continued on the path until he saw a large group of civilians heading through an archway at the end of the path. He decided to follow them at a safe distance to find out what was going on.

He stopped in front of a sign that was set up in front if the doorway leading to where they were gathering when he reached it.

"The Guardians protect us from the False Shepard," was what the sign said. The sign showed three Guardians battling against a mass of red and black tentacles.

The man whose skin that Alex was currently wearing provided him more information about this "False Shepard" business.

The False Shepard was a demon that could take the form of anyone it eats and only a Guardian could see through its disguise.

Its preferred human form was a man with a hood over his head, giving him the appearance of the Grim Reaper. The image of the False Shepard's human form eerily looked like Alex Mercer in his default form.

It wasn't a coincidence that image in the man's memories and his face almost looked the same. It was as if they knew that the viral monster was coming. He had to stay in disguise for he speculated nothing good would happen if people saw the real. Why else would they have a sign to warn the citizens of what would be for them the coming of the Anti-Christ?

Wait a minute, people always reacted badly whenever he reveals his powers in public. So why should he be worried again?

"_It doesn't matter,"_ Alex shrugged before going through the entryway. He arrived at a small park before stopping in front of a stage where a man was speaking to a large audience. It appeared to be a raffle with everyone wanted to test their luck today.

He wanted to slip by the crowd unnoticed but there were too many people so he had to be very careful with his strength lest he bumped into someone.

He had to resist growling at the many people touching him. He was made to assimilate humans and it was almost painful to remain calm with this many warm and appetizing bodies pressing against him.

"What's the rush, handsome?" he heard a young woman say beside him.

He turned to see a young woman holding a basket, which was filled with baseballs, while smiling sweetly and fluttering her eyelashes for some reason.

"The raffle is just starting. Don't you feel lucky?" she said to him.

"Sure do," he happily declared, maintaining his cover as a Columbian citizen as he grabbed a baseball.

It turned out that each ball had a number on them. Normally, the contestants would pick a card with a random number on it in a raffle but here it was a baseball.

He turned the ball that he drew over to see a bright red seventy-seven on it. His eyes widened as he recalled the telegram that warned him not to pick number seventy-seven. It wasn't a password or a sequence but a number for a raffle.

Alex had half a mind to get rid of the ball but the other half (the one that remembered the dip in the ocean) wanted to keep it with him just to spite the twins.

The latter won in the end after an internal debate with himself.

He casually tossed the ball into the air and caught it as the man on the stage asked for a bowl filled with small slips of paper.

"Is that not the prettiest young white girl in all of Columbia? Ha ha!" the speaker said to the audience as a young attractive woman walked on stage.

Alex had to admit that the woman did look like "the prettiest young white girl in all of Columbia" but he had honestly seen better.

"Alright then, the winner is…" said the man as he reached into the bowl and pulled out a piece of paper, "Number 77!"

"Yeah!" the Prototype cheered, still pretending to be the overenthusiastic citizen that his disguise used to be. He raised the ball up high and cheered as loudly as he can.

If he ever decided to get a job that doesn't involve science, people getting killed or both, he could easily become an actor and win an Oscar or two.

"Number 77, come forward and claim your prize!" the man shouted as the crowd practically pushed him to the stage. He stood in front of the stage as the curtains behind the stage opened.

What he saw behind the curtains left him speechless. A fake jungle scenery was revealed and opened up as a white man and a black woman that were tied up were brought to the front.

"First throw! First Throw! First Throw!" the people behind him chanted.

He had to fight off a sigh to what was happening. Humans will never cease to disappoint him. Funny, one of the reasons that he took the job was to restore his faith in humanity.

"Well, son? Are you going to throw it…or are you taking your coffee _black_ these days?" he asked as he laughed loudly at his own racist joke with many others joining him.

He couldn't care less for the interracial couple but he couldn't deny that a public stoning was greatly frowned upon in most societies. Or at least back where he's from.

"Well if you insist," he smirked as he pulled his arm back in preparation to throw the ball. There was something about the man's face that just pisses him off so it irked the bioweapon when the man was telling him what to do. This man wanted Alex Mercer to throw the damn ball so he was going to do just that. But he didn't specify whom he should throw it at.

Before he could throw the ball at the announcer, a huge hand wrapped around his wrist and applied enough pressure to break the bone if he was human. He turned his head to the side and saw the massive form of a Guardian holding his arm.

"I can see through your mask, False Shepard!" the super soldier spat, tightening his grip on his wrist.

Everyone in the audience gasped at the revelation and stepped back as a group of cops arrived. They surrounded him and aimed their guns at him. Alex merely stared at them with an air of indifference.

"I ain't letting no False Shepard into our flock!" the man exclaimed, making the crowd boom with agreement. He looked down at the police officers with a sadistic grin, "Show him what we got planned for him, boys!"

Alex Mercer didn't give them the chance to as he grabbed the arm of the Guardian and threw him over his shoulder. The Columbian super soldier slammed onto the ground, making everyone else tumble. He followed it up with a kick to the big man's side that launched him back. Some police officers and civilians were crushed by the Guardian's form falling on top of them.

"That all you got?" Alex taunted, crossing his arms. The Guardian picked himself back up and pounded his fists in response.

"Good," he smirked before his skin rippled and pulsed and tendrils swarmed across him. Then he stood there in the hooded form of Alex Mercer for all to see. He let his arms reshaped themselves into claws, idly hearing the screams of fear, "I would be disappointed if it was."

Without another word, they charged at each other. One had a fist raised while the other had claws outstretched.

Alex ducked under the punch and swiped at the Guardian's side, leaving four deep gashes that leaked blood. He shifted his body to avoid a backhand blow and slip past his enemy's guard. He then latched onto his larger foe's shoulders and began hacking away with his claws.

The Guardian eventually threw him off. But Alex righted himself in midair with an air recovery maneuver while replacing his claws for the Whipfist. Still not touching the ground, he shot out the extendable appendage, making it latch itself onto the Guardian's chest. With a sharp tug, he pulled himself toward his target and slammed both feet on the super soldier's face, knocking both of them to the ground and creating a crater.

The Columbian super soldier looked like he was about to collapse from his injuries, but Alex Mercer wasn't done with him yet as changed his arms into claws again.

The Prototype jammed both claws into Guardian's chest and lifted him over his head as feeder tentacles stabbed into him. With an inhuman roar, he spread his arms apart, ripping the Guardian in half in the process while his tendrils consumed what was left of him.

After absorbing the super soldier's DNA, his body began to violently ripple and pulse. This was his first time successfully consuming a super soldier so the new sample of genetic material gave him a surge of energy that he associated to when his powers evolve.

"Hell yeah!" he exclaimed as the sudden rush of power ended. He noted that his claws were longer and sharper while his arms had glowing red veins on them.

"That was a tasty snack," he commented, turning to face the remaining police officers with upgraded claws spread-out, "Though, I'm still feeling a bit hungry."

Time to go to work.


	3. The Girl

AN:

Alex Mercer just had an upgrade. He will also get all the other upgrades from [Prototype 2] but he won't be getting any Vigors...yet.

Chapter 3

Alex Mercer laughed in sadistic pleasure as he tore another police officer apart with his claws. The crowd had begun to scream in terror and ran from the area as fast as their legs could carry them, which still wasn't enough to outrun the viral monster if he really wanted to kill them all.

More cops came from down the steps and into the now cleared area with clubs and Sky-Hooks as they charged at Alex with the intention to kill him.

"Stop him! Stop him! The False Shepard's come to lead our Lamb astray!" the man on the stage shouted as he fled with everyone else. Alex was about to pounce on him and consume him but one of the cops shot his left hand out where a shockwave hit the Blacklight being. The hooded monster then found himself levitating in midair.

Seeing that he was defenseless, the cops charged at him with renewed drive. It looked like killing the False Shepard will be a lot easier now because of the Bucking Bronco Vigor.

Fleshy appendages quickly surrounded and spun around his claws as they morphed into large and heavy mounds of flesh. When the Hammerfists finally finished forming, Alex was brought back down to the ground at the sudden weight change.

The Hammerfists also had a change to its appearance due to upgrade. His arms had gained a more rock-like form and red veins glowed from the cracks.

A couple of rounds bit into his shoulder but he paid them no mind as he gathered most of his biomass into his arm. The hand where he concentrated his biomass slammed down onto ground from its heavy weight and released a shockwave that blew everyone back. But Alex was just getting started as he lifted the hand over his head before bring it back down again.

The Hammerfist crashed into the ground with the force of a meteor, sending a wave of upturned earth across the surrounding area thus clearing the field of all enemies.

"_Well, almost all,"_ Alex mused as he heard a groan coming from a survivor.

Dismissing his Hammerfists, he approached the lone survivor and picked him up by the neck.

"I need to know what you know," Alex told the man struggling to escape from his grip.

"You ain't getting nothing from me, False Shepard!" the man yelled back at him as his legs flailed about in the air.

"Don't you mean: "You aren't getting anything" or "You're getting nothing"," the Prototype corrected him on his grammar, "Because "ain't" isn't a real word and your sentence had a double negative in it."

"And one more thing that you're wrong about," he added, bringing the man's face closer to establish eye contact, "You're going to give me everything."

"Wha-" Alex cut the man off by smashing him into the ground. He then started to punch the human brutally to death. The man's screams of pain quickly ended as Alex consumed him.

00000

Web of Intrigue - Officer Sullivan Coswell

"_Is it true?"_

_Sullivan Coswell: "Is what true?"_

"_That Monument Island has been quarantined?"_

_Sullivan: "I think so. I heard that the Lamb's sick or something."_

"_I hope she gets better soon."_

_Sullivan: "Then let's pray for her quick recovery. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be heading to Raffle now."_

"_You think you're gonna win the prize?"_

_Sullivan: "You never know. I might get lucky today."_

Web of Intrigue – END

00000

"Today just wasn't your lucky day," Alex Mercer said as the memory ended.

So the entire Monument Island had been quarantined. This intel could be useful.

Though, he was a bit wary when he heard the word: "quarantined". With the Virus here in Columbia, there was a chance that Monument Island was one big floating Infected Lair.

He repressed a shudder at the thought of a flying structure full of infected walkers and Hunters. He was glad that he didn't have to deal with something like that back at Manhattan.

He was interrupted by a shout, "What in the Prophet happened here!?"

He turned to see two police officers gawking at the destruction with wide eyes. It took them awhile to notice him but by then it was already too late.

00000

It felt like enemies were waiting for Alex at every corner. But he was okay with because it gave him an excuse to cut loose with his claws. Pun most certainly intended.

He could see the gate at the end of the road. He didn't spare a glance at the policemen that he cut down behind him. But he did spare a glance at the small group of officers going through the gate.

"It's the Fireman! The Fireman's on his way!" one of the officers shouted, "He'll take care of that demon!"

By the time that he reached the end, the giant wooden doors were slammed shut. He activated his thermal vision and saw a person with abnormally high body temperature behind the gate.

Deactivating his thermal vision, he stared at the gate for a moment with hands in his pockets. He gave it a light (light for him anyway) and broke it down.

Entering another empty road, the Virus saw a man in thick armor on top of a stack of crates ahead. The armor that the man wore looked like welding armor complete with a mask to match, as he stood tall.

Alex had to honestly say that the man suddenly bursting into flames and spread fires along the buildings and nearby stands surprised him. The heat of the flames reminded him of the times that he destroyed military bases and Infected Hives.

The Prototype grinned in anticipation. The Luteces may have warned him to not to consume Vigor-users but that doesn't he shouldn't try a bite at least.

"Burn in the name of our Prophet!" the Vigor-powered man shouted as he formed a ball of magma in his hand. He then launched it at Alex, who morphed his arm into a shield to block it. The projectile blew up with the force of a grenade once it made contact with the wall of hardened biomass.

"Impressive," Alex said to the Fireman, shield still steaming from the fiery explosive.

"Hopefully, you'll put up a better fight than that Guardian earlier," he stated before charging at the Vigor-user with his shield acting as a battering ram.

The Fireman barely rolled out of the way. He shot a jet of fire from each hand that propelled him back to lengthen the distance between them. The Vigor-user then threw more fireballs at the Prototype but Alex simply transformed his other arm into a shield to block the multiple blasts.

He swapped out the shields for his blade. He dashed towards the Fireman with blade ready to slice his foe in half. He only made it halfway before the ground from underneath him exploded. He didn't notice the Vigor trap that the Fireman set while he was throwing fireballs at the sentient virus.

Thinking that the Prototype was killed, the Fireman grinned from behind his mask at the fiery explosion. The grin was swiftly wiped away when he saw a barely fazed Alex Mercer come out of the flames. The Vigor-user lifted his arms up in a vain attempt to defend himself from the massive blade.

"Demon…" was the last word of the Fireman before he was sliced in half and consumed.

Alex really should have listened to the Luteces' advice as he felt like he was being burned from the inside out. Almost all of the man's DNA was altered by the Vigor and there were barely any genetic material that he could use to access the man's powers.

But he could feel himself nearly grasping the potential and he just needed to something to connect the Vigor to the Blacklight virus. But what!?

00000

Web of Intrigue- Roland Algren

_Roland Algren: "Wha-what's going on?"_

"_Specimen A041 had spontaneously combusted when injected with Sample#41. Will have to sweep up the ashes later."_

_Roland: "Where am I? Who are you?"_

"_I will now inject Specimen A042 with Sample#42."_

_Roland: "Wait, what are you doing? No! STOP! AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!"_

"_Sample#42 has promising results."_

_Roland: "I'M BUUUUURRRRNNNNIIIIIIIIIING! MAKE IT STOOOOOOOOPPPP!"_

"_Yet it's slightly unstable and will cause extreme discomfort to the specimen."_

_Roland: "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?"_

"_You have committed crimes against the Prophet and you will only receive penance through this. Or so I have been told. I honestly don't care why you're here as long as I perfect the Devil's Kiss Vigor._

Web of Intrigue-END

00000

Alex bent down and began to vomit what looked like molten biomass. He could still feel the burn sensation from consuming the Fireman, but it had reached a bearable level.

He wasn't sure why that memory was significant, but it may be the key to harnessing the Devil's Kiss Vigor.

Despite what the twins said, he was confident that his body would eventually adapt to be capable of using Vigors. Like they said, the Blacklight Virus was constantly evolving and adapting to new stimuli. So repeated exposure to Vigors would either give him new powers or give him immunity to the negative side effects of absorbing Vigors.

Setting aside that issue for now, Alex changed his appearance to Officer Sullivan Coswell. One of the perks of being able to shapeshift was that he could always change his disguise whenever his old one had been exposed. Besides, the people who knew what happened to Sullivan were dead so no one except the Guardians would tell the difference.

Not a moment to soon, another group of policemen arrived to the scene. He also manipulated his biomass to make it seem like he came out the bad end of a scrap fight.

"Officer Coswell, tell me what the blazes happened here!" the lead officer demanded as one of them went to support him up.

"It wasn't anything I have every seen before, sir," the disguised Alex shook his head in mock disbelief, mimicking Coswell's voice and personality perfectly, "The Fireman engaged with the False Shepard but he didn't stand a chance against it."

"W-what do y-y-you mean?" the officer holding him stammered in a failed attempt to hide his fear.

"The Fireman tried to burn that demon's ass to kingdom come," he panted as if he was in pain, "But it fucking ripped the Fireman and my squad apart!"

"Shit! How did you survive?" another cop inquired.

"I was really damn lucky. I got trapped under the corpses of my team and it must've thought I was dead too so it left me alone."

"Thank the Prophet that you lived to see another day."

Alex nearly scoffed at that. These people were so devoted to their precious "prophet" that it bordered on fanaticism. What a bunch of dumbasses.

"C'mon, let's get you treated," the lead officer said as he brought out a medi-kit and took out a vial full of red liquid.

"Here, drink this and you'll be right as rain," the unsuspecting cop told the Prototype, handing the vial to him.

Knowing the regenerative properties of the Health vial from the stolen knowledge, Alex gulped it down without hesitation. He reined in his biomass to subtly repair his "injuries" and replicate the healing effects of the Health vial. Thinking that it was the vial doing the job, the cops didn't suspect a thing.

"Father Comstock's army has already been deployed so we're being pulled out."

"But the False Shepard's still out there somewhere!" Alex protested, partly keeping up the act, "That monster will reach the Lamb if we don't do something to stop it!"

"I know that, son," the older man placed a hand on his shoulder, "But Father Comstock wants us somewhere else and his word is law."

"…I understand," he lowered his head in faux dejection. The older man gave him a friendly smile before removing his hand from his shoulder.

"Then you are of no use to me," Alex whispered into the man's ear as the Prototype walked past him. Before the man could respond, Alex stabbed a finger into the back of the man's neck.

The Blacklight incarnate walked away without a care in the world as the cop screamed in pain, effectively drawing attention away from him. Tentacles unexpectedly force themselves out of the unfortunate man and latched themselves onto anything they could touch like some random debris and the other police officers. The tendrils quickly retracted with said objects to smash into the epicenter, turning the group of humans into mush.

Ah, the Bio-bomb. It does what the name implies by turning any biological beings into organic explosives hence the name.

This was an ability that he acquired during his travels but he discovered it by accident when a rocket blew up in his face while he was consuming a prey. The explosion knocked him off his prey before Alex could fully assimilate the man's DNA. But a part of Alex was still inside the man and it began to react violently from being separated from the main body.

Let's say that the resulting explosion of blood and gore came as a very big surprise to Alex Mercer and his enemies.

He didn't really need to kill the cops but using the Bio-bomb always left him feeling satisfied.

Now that his disguise won't give him access to Monument Island, he should find a soldier that he could impersonate.

00000

It was a simple task for Alex Mercer to disguise himself as a soldier and commandeer an airship. No one even tried to stop him because they thought he was one of them.

He smirked. His powers always made infiltrating the enemy lines ridiculously easy and nobody could tell the difference unless he purposely showed them or a Guardian was around to identify him. So as long as he avoided bumping into any super soldiers, he could reach Monument Island with none being the wiser.

Or so that was what he thought.

He couldn't steer the zeppelin fast enough to evade the debris that smashed into one of the airship's engines. He sighed in frustration and dismissed his disguise as the ship began to catch on fire and fall from the sky.

Alex jumped out of the tumbling blimp before it was fully consumed by fire. Luckily, he was already close to Monument Island. Adjusting his biomass to be more aerodynamic, he glided towards a building that was close to the monument.

He dropped down to the balcony of the building and he reshaped his arms into claws as he turned to face the guns and Vigors that were being aimed in his general direction.

"Enough! Stand down!" boomed a loud and powerful voice over the building's PA system.

Every soldier dropped their weapons to the ground before kneeling down and beginning to pray. Even, the Columbian super soldiers were no exception.

Alex arched an eyebrow at the assembly of praying soldiers. That was definitely new. He had seen his prey do many things from throwing curses at him to sniveling on the ground like babies. Sure, they prayed sometimes if you count "Oh God, please help me!" as praying that is.

He experimentally waved a claw in front of one of the soldiers, but the soldier didn't acknowledge the bladed hand and kept on praying. Taking it a bit further, the Prototype impaled his claw into the man's torso and consumed him for kicks; still no reaction from the others.

"Weird," he noted as he stepped through the assembly of praying soldiers and into the building. More soldiers were lined up on either side of the dark room, leading toward a lift at the back.

Stepping onto the elevator, the wall in front sprang to life as a black and white projection started playing, revealing the face of Zachary Comstock.

Not bothering to look at the projection, Alex pulled the lever in front of him, causing the lift to rise.

"I know why you've come, False Shepard," Comstock said, "You have come from the Sodom below to lead my Lamb astray but thy crook is bent and thy path is twisted."

Not giving the old man a reply, the virus idly inspected his claws like someone examining their fingernails.

The self-proclaimed began to say more but Alex just tuned him out. Mercer didn't deem the old fart fit for his attention let alone a response of any kind.

"Are you even paying attention to what I am saying!?" Comstock bellowed after a while.

"No," he truthfully admitted in a dismissive manner.

"I see," Comstock shook his head as the projection shut off. The lift stopped at the top floor, allowing him off.

"Return to the Sodom below, Alex Mercer!" the Prophet said as the projection screen pulled away from the building, revealing that it had been an airship.

Alex sprinted along the hallways of the building in hopes of finding an exit. An explosive blast blew a portion of a wall away as he rounded a corner.

"Go back!" Comstock's voice boomed as he saw the airship that had fired on the building.

"Well, there's the exit," Mercer quipped as he leapt through the hole and onto the airship.

A door on the outside of the ship was kicked open and three soldiers ran out onto the deck with guns blazing as they tried to shoot down the Prototype and get him off the ship.

Deciding to end the slaughter quickly, Alex broke off into a sprint and slid towards his prey before cleaving the soldier in half. He twisted his body and slashed at another foe, leaving him dead before he hit the ground. He kicked the third soldier off the railing while absentmindedly swiping a claw at another soldier that tried to sneak up on him.

He entered the ship's interior when he heard a loud bang and then the world temporarily blinked out of existence. He hated it when they went for the face. He could feel the black and red tendrils of his biomass recreating the missing parts of his head. He lashed out a claw and grabbed in the direction the shot had come from.

The man had foolishly not gotten much distance between them as Alex wrapped his claws around the man's neck. The walking virus snapped his neck in time for his vision to return. He blinked to clear the fog and consumed the man for his trouble.

He activated his thermal vision just to be sure that there were no enemies left on the ship. He spotted human-shaped heat source at the cockpit. The heat source was what seemed to be in a praying gesture.

"Stay out of my way and we won't have a problem," Alex said to her as he arrived at the cockpit. The woman gave no indication that she heard him or not.

Reforming his claws into normal arms, the Prototype set the coordinates for Monument Island and pulled another level to start the engines.

The zeppelin started to make a turn when another airship sprang up in front of it. Comstock stood on the deck with three soldiers kneeling down around him. The Prophet and Zeus locked gazes for the first time as he spoke into a microphone.

"The Lord forgives everything," he said with his voice projected through the ship's PA system, "However, I am just a prophet…so I don't have to."

"Amen," the self-proclaimed prophet muttered as the ship began to float away.

"Amen," repeated a feminine voice behind him.

Alex quickly turned around impaled his fist through the woman's chest. The woman coughed out a whole lot of blood and she glared defiantly at him before her life slipped away. A candle fell from her limp hand and ignited the gasoline strewn all over the floor thus setting a large portion of the ship on fire.

Mercer turned around and threw the woman's corpse at the windshield. The dead body hit the glass hard enough to shatter it. He shot out of the doomed ship through the broken window, abandoning the second airship that he stole within the day.

Looking down, he saw a Skyline passing underneath him. He shaped his right arm into a Sky-Hook and snagged onto one of the rails. With a mental brush, he willed the hooks to spin and he began to zip away from the scene of the zeppelin falling into the clouds and out of sight.

What happened earlier was but a mere nuisance than an actual threat to him. It would take more than that to even make him pause in deliberation. All they did was try to delay the inevitable because Alex Mercer will complete any task that he had set out to do. Saving his sister also motivated him to finish the job no matter what.

Fortunately, this portion of the skyway lead right to Monument Island, which had been an immense relief as he dropped down onto the stone walkway that lead inside.

Alex took a glance at the falling ship as it finally exploded. Shaking his head, he went up the stairs and went past the barricades that were set up to keep people out.

He found himself in front of a large locked gate. He looked at it for a few seconds before vaulting over it. The Prototype walked up the steps before him and up to the gigantic double doors that led to into the tower.

He pushed the doors open and scrutinized the empty foyer. A small-scaled version of the tower sat in the center of the room with crates stacked up on one side and a wall of lockers on the other side. The whole place was devoid of life and from what it looked like; everyone here had been forced to leave in a rush.

"_It must be because of the quarantine,"_ he mused as he crossed the room and through another set of doors that lead farther inside. He walked down a long corridor until he was in a room filled with several electronic devices, chalkboards, and other data records on the walls.

The board in front of him had data on four stages of a person's growth like the height, weight, and brain activity of each stage.

So that was why the girl was so damn important. She seemed to be some kind of test subject, but he wasn't sure for what purpose. He just hoped that this Elizabeth wasn't like another Elizabeth he knew. He didn't desire to deal with another MOTHER since he was also not supposed to kill the girl.

In the next half of the room behind the records, a large station was set up with electrical bolts coming out of the walls and striking tesla coils at the top. Three lit levers sat in the front, sparking Alex's curiosity.

He pulled down one of the levers and a display of a brown teddy bear was lit up. Bolts of electricity struck the stuffed animal and the doll's color slowly shifted to pink. He pulled down on the other two levers and it showed something similar like a towel changing its design and a book changing color.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Alex quoted Alice in Wonderland at the interesting display. It may seem boring to anyone else but the many scientists inside his head were practically begging for further study to this strange phenomenon. It was as if the object's molecules were being rearranged to make the changes. It acted like how he forms his biomass into clothes and weapons. It was very interesting indeed.

He went into another corridor that had several rooms on either side. Entering each room, the bioweapon's biomass bristled in anger at what he saw.

There were lab equipment, surgical instruments, chairs and beds with restraints, along with more records on the walls, keeping logs on what progress was made with the subject.

He had no reason to care for the girl but he hated the sight of human experimentation because it reminded him too much of Gentek and Blackwatch. It reminded him too much of the original Alex Mercer.

After visiting the developing studio and projection room, he went to the next room, which was lit up like a power plant. Electricity surged through the air and centered on a large device in the middle of the room. There several signs set up around the room that said that this…siphon was dangerous while it was leeching the specimen.

He moved through the chamber, passing by signs that mentioned something about this place being quarantined for a week and not to touch the specimen. He entered an elevator and pressed his palm on the switch, making the lift ascend.

The elevator dinged as the doors opened up to a clean room with black and white tiled floors, a metal shutter and a lever in front of the shutter.

Alex approached the shutter and pulled the lever, causing the metal wall to slide apart to show an elegant empty bedroom.

Looking down the hall next to him, the bioweapon moved to where a panel on the wall was set up. It seemed to be some sort of device that kept track of the girl's current location.

"She's in the dressing room," he said out loud as the panel showed the girl's position and a steel door next to him slid up into the ceiling, allowing him passageway.

Moving along the wooden pathway, he arrived at the following section where the girl was being kept and found another shutter with a camera beside it.

He pulled down the lever in front of him, making the shutter slide open to reveal a young woman standing right in front of him. She was a few inches shorter than him and had dark brown hair tied back. She wore a long-sleeved white blouse with blue cuffs and collar. She also had a blue ascot tied loosely around her neck and a long blue skirt.

Her light blue eyes looked right at him but didn't seem to notice him. This meant that this glass was most likely a one-way mirror.

The girl seemed to be singing with a picture of the Eiffel tower clenched in her hands. His eyes trailed down when he saw something shine and noted that she was missing half of her right pinky finger. A silver thimble covered the slight deformity.

"_She's not infected,"_ he observed as Elizabeth skipped out of the room. The shutter closed not long after.

There was no way that the girl was infected since he couldn't detect any trace of the virus within her. He was fairly relieved to not have another Elizabeth Greene on his hands but that still left one more question. Why was the girl so important?

he moved down the adjacent hallway to another locator panel, which said that she was now in the dining room.

He followed the open path to the next observation room. He opened the shutter to find Elizabeth eyeing a painting of the Eiffel tower that she must have made herself. He had to admit that it was a fine work of art.

She then reached forward with both hands, looking like she was going to rip the canvas in half. Something started to happen; a small sliver of light began to brighten in the room.

Elizabeth threw her arms out. Everything in the was sent flying and the reinforced glass cracked around the edges as a portal was ripped open, showing the outside of a movie theater with the Eiffel tower in the distance.

"Holy shit…" he said in wonder.

What the portal was showing was all gravelly like a TV with bad reception. The girl gazed at what was being shown in awe before a pair of headlights from a fire truck came speeding towards her.

Before the large automobile could hit her, she brought her arms together, sealing the portal. Putting her head in her hands, Elizabeth ran from the dining room as the shutter closed.

"Oh, so that's what so important about her," Alex said to himself, not fully processing what he saw.

Then the details settled in. It was a fire truck that scared her into closing the portal and vehicles that ran on fuel shouldn't even exist in this time period. So not only did she create a doorway to Paris, she was able to bridge from here in 1912 to the future. As to how far in the future, he wasn't entirely sure.

But it did make sense though. If this girl could produce holes through space and time, then it certainly explained how the Lutece twins transported him here. Right now, the girl was the key to curing Dana.

He went through the door on his left and followed the next section of the path around the observation room and up a ramp to the next viewing room.

The shutter opened, revealing a grand library. The walls were covered with bookshelves that were filled to the brim with hardbound books. The main floor had a couple of comfortable chairs and desks set up with writing equipment. It gave the impression that this was where she studied.

Elizabeth stood on a landing at the top of a flight of stairs as she stared out the window before her at the beautiful sky beyond. Her right hand rested on the glass as she watched the clouds pass her by.

"I guess it's about time I go introduce myself," Alex said as he clenched his hand into a fist.

There was just a glass panel between him and his target. And one punch quickly removed that obstruction.

The glass shattered into a thousand tiny fragments, their crystal-like surface glinting off as it fell to the ground. He climbed over the frame and dusted himself of any glass shards that clung onto his leather jacket. Predictably, the girl had let out a scream and was now standing with her back against the wall.

The way she looked at him with fear lasted only for a few seconds. But in those seconds, her blue eyes showed all the fright a doe would before it was replaced by an outraged tiger-like temper.

"Who are you!?" she indignantly demanded with her hands on her hips. Her mouth tried hard to bite its lower lip to mask the girl's nervousness.

He was almost impressed by the girl's spirit. It sort of reminded him of Dana.

"My name is Alex Mercer," the bioweapon replied, "And you're coming with me. One way or another."


	4. The Prototype

Chapter 4

Alex Mercer was many things or rather he could become many things if given the opportunity. Killer. Monster. Terrorist. Hunter. He was all those things and something much more. And in Columbia, he was the False Shepard, a demon that had come to lead the Lamb astray.

"Get away!" his current target shouted as she hurled book after book at him.

But a master of tact and grace he was not.

He should have done a more delicate approach to not frighten off his target. He had consumed so many people who were expert negotiators that he could probably convince a murdering psychopath to turn over a new leaf and live a life full of rainbows and butterflies. Was he exaggerating? Yes, he was.

But he didn't bother as long as the girl comes with him. He would drag her around like a sack of potatoes if it weren't for the Luteces' instruction to not harm the girl.

The bioweapon sighed with his hands in his pockets as the volumes bounced off of his body.

Many things in his short life had hit him from conventional firearms to tanks. It also wasn't limited to regular humans like getting mauled by a Hunter, receiving a pile driver from a super soldier, and being blasted by MOTHER.

A bunch of books wasn't going to do jack shit to him.

"You done yet?" he asked her when the shelf closest to her was devoid of any ammunition for her to throw.

He decided to put his foot down when he saw the girl make a move towards the next bookshelf. He didn't have all day to be bombarded by books after all. He just wanted to get this over with so those twins could cure Dana.

Alex leaped up to the landing and landed a few feet in front of her, leaving cracks on the floor due to his weight.

"You want to get out of here or not?" he asked, blocking her path from the stacks of books that she was going to throw at him.

Elizabeth looked into his blue eyes and shivered from how unnatural they looked. This was a common reaction whenever someone gets close enough to make eye contact with him. It was as if their instincts were telling them to run from the being before them like a frightened animal.

"Are you…are you real?" she asked with a tremble in her voice as she tentatively reached her hand out to him.

He gripped the girl's wrist before it touched his face, "I'm real enough."

The gold statue of some man with a beard that had been next to them began to let out a whistling tune. Elizabeth looked downright terrified as she turned to Alex who immediately tensed as he sensed the coming foe.

"He's coming! Y-you have to go!" she whispered frantically as she tried to push him back but failed due to being heavier than he looked.

"You have to leave now! Go! Before he arrives," she said to him. A loud bestial roar resounded through the whole tower, making her look up.

"Just a minute! I'm getting dressed!" she shouted at the ceiling where Alex could sense where the threat was coming from.

Under normal circumstances, he would just kill whatever had her worked up but the girl might get hurt in the process. He couldn't afford to let that happen because she was his chance to prevent his sister from dying.

"We need to get out of here," he said as Elizabeth scrambled around the room in panic, trying to find a place to hide him.

"There's no way out, trust me. I've looked."

The sound boomed again, making her jump.

"STOP IT! YOU'RE TOO IMPATIENT. THAT'S ENOUGH!" she shouted at the ceiling again or to be more precise, whatever was coming.

"Well, there's a way out right over there," he gestured with a thumb over his shoulder at the shattered window.

"Oh…right," she replied, feeling embarrassed that she forgot about that.

"C'mon," motioned with a jerk of his head to the improvised exit before walking down the stairs with the girl following behind him.

He climbed through and offered a hand to the young woman. Elizabeth seemed to hesitate for a few minutes, trying to decide if she should trust the viral monster. Losing his patience, he grabbed her hand and unceremoniously pulled her through the window.

"Hey!" the girl incredulous snapped at him, cradling the hand that he grabbed.

"Don't be a baby."

She better be thankful that he barely used a fraction of his whole strength or he would've ripped her whole arm right out of its socket.

They ran down the stairs on the other side when the walls around them shook viciously as if something had struck the tower.

"What the hell was that?" he asked no one in particular as they picked up the pace.

"That was Songbird. It's his job to keep me locked up in here!" she answered.

"We'll see about that," he smirked as they began to backtrack on the path that he went through to reach her. The monument kept shaking.

"Who exactly are you? Why did you come here?" Elizabeth asked him as they ran.

"Now's not the right time, kid!" he replied as the tower shook again. They circumnavigated another corner when an impact nearly sent them sprawling to the ground. The metal wall of the monument ahead of him was carved into by a set of enormous talons. Those claws suspiciously looked like a bigger version of his claws.

"Shit!" he swore as he ran after Elizabeth. Another sizable cut was made into the tower, causing a support beam to collapse down onto the wooden walkway behind him.

After entering the next corridor, he slammed his hand over the button on the wall in haste, calling the elevator up yet accidentally breaking the button at the same time. He was worried that the elevator won't work anymore with the button broken but the sounds of it coming down eased his doubts.

As they waited for the lift to arrive, Elizabeth finally took notice of the one-way mirror, gasping in shock as she recognized the room beyond as her bedroom.

"What is all this?" she asked like he would know the answers, "They were watching me? All this time…why?"

"Why did they put me here? What am I? WHAT AM I!?" she cried out as she turned to face him with desperation and uncertainty in her eyes.

"Do I look like I know the answer to that?" he shrugged, not really caring about her distress.

A gigantic rock-like fist suddenly punched through the door of the elevator, making Elizabeth stumble back until she was pressed against the far wall while Alex entered a battle stance. Tendrils spun and wrapped around the giant stone-arm as it morphed into a somewhat normal looking yet still big coal black arm with luminescent red patterns on it. It withdrew and an enormous head scoured into the room with glowing red eyes.

"That does NOT look like a fucking bird to me!"

The creature resembled more like a mutated gorilla with reptilian features than a bird. It looked a lot like a Leader Hunter except its skin was a different color and it was evidently much bigger than one.

More tendrils crawled up its arms, shaping them into bigger and spikier versions of his claws. One of the eyes zeroed in on Alex as it began to force its head into the door. Its talons tore into the walls and forced the opening to become wider.

Elizabeth screamed while Alex punched the creature in the face as hard as he can, which by the way was a lot. The strength of the punch pushed its head back but not by a lot. The blow looked like more it annoyed the thing than hurt it.

A ding resounded from the elevator call button, drawing everyone's attention in the room including the giant monster. Seconds later, the elevator dropped down from above, striking the creature hard enough to dislodge it and send it crashing down.

If that thing was anything like a Leader Hunter, then it was highly doubtful that an elevator crashing down on its head killed it. So they needed to keep going before it comes back.

Alex unceremoniously scooped Elizabeth up and slung her over his shoulder, earning cries of protest from the girl. He was in too much of a hurry to be gentle.

The bioweapon leapt through the elevator shaft while carrying the young woman and landed on the other side. He then dashed up the stairs while picking up speed.

He already made it past several floors when the tower began shaking again, except this time much more violently than it had previously. Knowing that the creature just got back up, the Blacklight being pushed himself further up the steps.

"We have to hurry! He's going to tear the whole building apart!" she shouted in his ear.

"I don't see your ass running!" he yelled back as he ran past a beam that crashed through the floor above.

"No need to be rude!" she retorted sharply as they reached the top. Not bothering to twist the wheel to open the door, Alex kicked it down, sending it falling over the edge.

I'm trying to get us out of here!" he said over the sound of the wind, "My fucking social skills are not relevant at the moment!"

Alex could see why he wasn't the Luteces' first choice for this. If Dana's life wasn't at stake, he would be very tempted to just leave her skinny ass behind.

"Where do we go!?" she asked.

"Put your arms around my neck!" he ordered, setting the girl down on her feet.

"WHAT!?" she screamed, staring at him with wide eyes as if he lost his mind.

"JUST DO IT!"

She shrunk back at the murderous scowl under the hood. And for a second, she could've sworn that his eyes were glowing. Not wanting to make him angrier, she meekly got behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Hold on," was the only warning she got before he jumped over the railing with her clinging onto him.

The girl's arms gripped tighter around in his neck and would've choked him if he actually needed to breathe. He could feel her burying her face into his jacket in an attempt to hide her sights from this horrifying experience as they fell, screaming the whole way.

Rolling his eyes, he adjusted himself in the air and began to glide through the clouds in a steady and gradual flight.

"You can stop screaming now. You're giving me a headache," he said to her, putting as much distance as he could from the giant angel statue…tower…thing.

She still held on tightly to Alex, frightened about their seeming doom. After a few seconds, she slowly opens her eyes, loosening her death grip on Alex. Squinting as the light of the sun casted across her face, she gasped, taken aback by the magnificent sight.

The sky was painted in beautiful cool hues of blue and white. The rays of sunlight reflected and refracted through the clouds, projecting a stunning visual show of lights and colors on the sky.

This was truly the vision of Heaven.

Of course, a certain bioweapon just had to ruin the moment.

"If you open your mouth any wider, a bird might fly in," he nonchalantly stated, not at all moved by the glorious spectacle.

Elizabeth closed her mouth from where it had fallen open and shook her head.

"You can fly!?"

"No, but I can glide," he calmly corrected her.

"Fuck!" he cursed as a zeppelin in the air ahead of them was suddenly destroyed.

"IT'S SONGBIRD!" Elizabeth called out as the creature flew out of the wreckage of the airship.

"That still does NOT look like a fucking bird to me!"

Yet again, Alex was right in his observation. The creature was a lot bigger than he initially thought and still looked nothing like a bird except for its large feathered wings. Chimera would be a more suitable name for it because it was the combination of several animals.

"THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT!"

The girl was right. Since the thing could fly, he won't be able to outfly the creature. He was going to have to think outside the box.

An idea sparked through his mind as he spotted a bridge ahead.

As they were almost within arms reach of the Songbird, Alex expulsed some of his biomass to propel himself away from the Songbird's grabbing hand. He performed a following Air Dash to do a one hundred eighty degree turn.

"So long, fucker!" Alex mockingly called out to the Songbird as he soared to the opposite direction of the creature's flight path.

Songbird looked back to see its charge and the viral abomination getting away from it. Because of its distraction, it failed to notice the bridge right in front of it and promptly crashed into it.

Having lost the Songbird (it still didn't look like a bird to Alex), Alex found a perfect spot for them to land.

The unlikely duo gently landed in a small square that held various beds of flowers with small and kitsch flowers sprayed around them. Quite a hefty bit of cafes littered the area around them and two main roads were connected to the square. One was where they had last seen Songbird crash while the other lead to the beach.

"Mr. Mercer?" Elizabeth asked, looking around, "Where are we now?"

"John Wilkes Booth Square," Alex replied, knowing the answer from the people he had consumed, "This place is near the beach."

"Ah," the girl looked around for a moment before her ears actually seemed to twitch, "I think I hear music!"

"Where do you think you're going?" Alex hastily caught her by the arm before she could run off.

"May I please go to where the music is coming from?" his charge implored, eyes wide and pouting to complete the puppy dog look, "I promise I won't be long."

Alex paused for a second as if he was really considering letting her run off. But before the girl's hope could rise, Alex began dragging her by the arm to the opposite direction of the source of the music.

"No."

Elizabeth was able to wrest her arm out of his hand.

"Hey, what's the big idea!?" she griped.

"Need I remind you that it hasn't been five minutes yet since we lost that piece of shit? And you expect me to let you wander off on your own to indulge your childish curiosity? Is that right?"

"Uum, yes?" she replied, unsure.

"No," he repeated firmly, arms crossed for emphasis.

"But this is the first time in my whole life that I'm out of my tower."

"Still no."

"Please, Mr. Mercer? Please, please, please, pleeeeeeeaaaaaaase?"

"How old are you? Five?" Alex questioned in disbelief at the young woman's babyish behavior.

"No, I'm twenty-one," Elizabeth replied, "Isn't that obvious?"

The bioweapon was tempted to tell her that he wasn't even two years old yet so he could see how she would react. But he thought better of it since his Blacklight abilities already made her wary of him and telling her that he was a sentient virus might be pushing it.

He opened his mouth to refuse the girl's request once again when something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. Without missing a beat, he turned to Elizabeth to give his answer to her.

"Alright, fine if it gets you to shut up about it," he finally acquiesced.

"Really!" her eyes lit up in excitement as she began to bounce on the balls of her feet in an attempt to hold back her bursting energy.

"Yeah, yeah, just go before I change my mind, kid," he sighed, making a shooing gesture at her.

"Thank you so much!" she ran up to him and hugged him with all her might.

Alex had to struggle to prevent his tendrils from coming out and consuming her when she hugged him. The last young woman to have hugged him betrayed him and created a parasite that nearly killed him. So his caginess to physical human contact that didn't involve killing with his fists and blades was to be expected.

"I won't be long, Mr. Mercer!" she called out as she ran off to where the music was coming from.

"But when I tell you it's time to leave, we're leaving!" he yelled before she was out of earshot.

Mercer knew that splitting up was a terrible idea but he could always find her with his hunter's pulse.

Hunter's pulse allowed Mercer to "ping" trenches, buildings, and facilities for human targets. It was capable of sending a viral sonar pulse to track down his target's bio signature and he will receive a return pulse of where his target was.

He was confident that he could easily locate the girl anywhere in Columbia since he was quite familiar with her bio-readings by now.

"I hate kids," he exhaled, taking a seat at a nearby café.

"Is this why I wasn't your first choice?" he asked the other occupants of the table that he was sitting in.

"Indeed, it is, Dr. Mercer," Robert Lutece replied before taking a sip from his cup of tea.

"We also didn't have the proper incentive to give at the time so you would not dare to consume Ms. Elizabeth," Rosalind added before she too took a sip from her tea.

"Coffee. Black. No sugar," Alex said to the waitress before she got the chance to ask him what he wanted to order.

Even though Alex Mercer was a walking virus that consumes humans, he could still eat and drink like how regular humans do. Eating and drinking doesn't replenish his biomass but it was simpler to blend in with the humans if he acquired a taste for food.

Although, he did learned that eating animal meat does replenish his biomass albeit by a miniscule amount.

"It seems that Jeremiah Fink was correct in his assumption," Rosalind said, setting her cup down.

"About what?" her twin inquired.

"Dr. Mercer is taking his coffee _black_ these days."

Mercer didn't care if he was eating garbage or the finest cuisine. All food just ended up clogging up in his biomass. The same goes for liquids and if he was going to have to drink something, then he didn't want those overcomplicated mixes of coffee inside him.

"You didn't tell me that the girl could also open portals through space and time," he stated, straight to the point.

"Would you have believed us if we told you?" the male Lutece arched an eyebrow.

"With all the crazy shit I've seen, yes."

"At least you have an open mind compared to the others we employed," the female Lutece shrugged.

"You mean the demigod and the cyborg samurai?" he raised his hands in a mocking motion, still not entirely believing that they hired a demigod and a cyborg.

"Ninja. Cyborg _ninja_," she corrected, "A ninja and a samurai are two different things. Though, they are both Japanese in origin."

"Like I give a fuck. I can tell that they weren't very good since the kid isn't here with you."

"On the contrary, they all came very close," the man retorted, sharing a knowing smile with his sister.

"Whatever," Alex dismissed the man's statement, "Oh, yeah. You still haven't told me where to bring the girl once we get out of Columbia."

"Did you not get our letter?"

"What letter?"

"The letter that was nailed to the door of the lighthouse."

"Oh," the bioweapon didn't notice the letter on the door. He was in too much of a hurry to get out of the rain and breaking down the door made him miss it.

"That is why we are here," the woman said, bringing out a piece of paper that was dripping wet.

"To deliver the full message of the job," her twin continued, "And to ask for the return of the key."

"Key?" he raised an eyebrow before realizing what they meant. He dug around his biomass and took out what they were talking about, "You mean this key?"

"Yes, that key," Robert said, not making a move to take the key from him.

As Alex was about to ask what this key was for, it suddenly disappeared from his hand and reappeared in Rosalind's hand.

"This key was intended to unlock the exit in Monument Island," the woman answered his unspoken question.

"But it seemed that there was no need to provide you with one since you decided to make your own," the man added, referring to the window that Alex broke.

"And all that's left is this," the woman brought out a dripping wet piece of paper. How it remained intact was a mystery to the bioweapon.

Alex gingerly took the letter like it was about to explode as he carefully maneuvered it so he wouldn't get wet. The ink scrawled words were barely legible from the water but he was able to decipher enough of it to make sense.

He supposed to bring the girl to New York from the coordinates that had been written here. That sounds simple enough and now all he has to do was find a proper airship to take them to New York.

He then saw a huge zeppelin with a picture of some woman on the balloon. Judging from its size and the number of engines it had, that ship was the perfect one to get their asses out of here.

"That's convenient," he noted before perusing the rest of the letter's contents.

The rest said that he was also free to tell the girl anything to persuade her to come with him voluntarily.

"And I'm guessing the moment I put this down, those assholes will pull off another Houdini," he said to himself before setting the damped paper down. Lo and behold, he was right. The only evidence of their presence was the still steaming cups of tea.

"Here's your coffee, sir," the waitress returned with his drink.

He quickly took his coffee from her and gulped it down in one go despite the fact that it was still steaming hot. He paid no mind to the shocked look from the woman and placed several Silver Eagles on the table as tip.

He already survived more explosions than he could count. He was even disintegrated by a goddamn nuclear bomb so a hot drink wasn't going to do much to him.

He stood up from his chair and walked off with hands in his pockets. Unbeknownst to everyone else besides him, a ring of orange came out from him, bathing the world around him in an orange light. After a few seconds, another ring was sent back to him, reverting everything back to its original color.

"_There you are,"_ he thought as his hunter's pulse successfully located his charge.

He moved up the cobblestone road, noting the glances he got from pedestrians. He must look like a pretty shady character with his black leather jacket and hood, judging from the mistrustful looks that he got from them.

Alex could have simply disguised himself but the girl wasn't aware of his shapeshifting ability yet so he had to remain in his default form for her to recognize him.

But even his hooded façade was attracting too much notice.

Then he got an idea that was so stupid that he doubted would even work. But considering how everyone back then was undeniably gullible, it just might work.

He gripped the top of his hood and pushed it back, revealing a head of curly brown hair. Felling incredibly uncomfortable without his hood, he raised tentative fingers to his newly exposed hair.

To his surprise, taking the hood off actually worked. People no longer looked at him like he was about to grow claws or something.

They had no idea how accurate that suspicion was if Alex was really in the mood to walk around with his claws out.

He did that once. Just walk around the streets with his claws out and without a care in the world. He didn't even try to kill anyone that time until Blackwatch arrived at the scene. Seriously? Can't a viral abomination go out on a peaceful stroll without someone shooting at him?

The returned pulse led him to a pier at the end of the beach. Alex passed by several rows of people lounging on towels or chairs as they enjoyed the setting sun. He overheard some women commenting how someone should put him in a swimsuit and how he needed someone to cheer him up.

Disregarding this, he went down the pier in search of his charge. He heard the sound of music in the distance. Remembering where the girl was going, he followed the music down the dock to where he saw a bunch of couples dancing among themselves with a three men band providing the melody.

Elizabeth was dancing in the center of the group. Her long skirt was spinning along with her movements as a look of tranquility and joy filled her face. The living weapon of mass destruction paused in his steps at the sight of the girl enjoying herself. The girl truly had the look of pure happiness on her face and such purity made him waver slightly.

Shaking his head, he began to call out to her, "Hey, kid."

"Kid!" he repeated, raising his voice to be heard over the music.

Elizabeth heard him this time. She stopped dancing and turned to look at him. She stared at him for a few moments.

"Excuse me?" she asked, pointing a finger at herself to see if he was talking to her.

Realizing that she didn't recognize him without his hood, Alex pulled his hood back up with a sigh.

"Oh, Mr. Mercer!" she exclaimed, finally recognizing the viral monster.

"This is wonderful! Come dance with me!" she said as she grabbed his hands and tried to pull him forward.

"I don't dance," he gruffly huffed as he pulled his hands away, "Time's up. We have to get going now."

"Why? What could be better than this?" she asked with her arms stretched out to what was around them.

"I don't know. Paris, maybe?" he suggested, inwardly smirking.

Alex wanted to remind her about the dangers (to her, not him) that they just recently escaped from but that wasn't enough to persuade the girl earlier.

Thinking back to all the pictures of Paris that the girl had, the bioweapon formulated a simple solution to convince her to come with him. He could entice her with the thought of going to the City of Love.

After all, humans were easy to manipulate once you play to their selfishness. The girl was no exception to this.

"I don't understand…how could we even get there?" she asked, now very excited.

"That airship over there is going to Paris," he said as he pointed the airship out to her, "But since you rather stay here and enjoy yourself…"

"No! Let's go! Let's go right now!" she shouted as she ran off ahead. Seeing her enthusiasm, he grinned haughtily at how effortlessly he could trick her. Humans were such feeble minded creatures indeed.

Elizabeth kept looking at everything in amazement.

"I'm out…it's so hard to believe but it's true, isn't it?" she asked dreamily as she smelled the air, "Can you smell that? I've never smelled anything like that before, have you?"

Alex Mercer hated the beach and any place close to a large body of water due to his severe dislike of water. The original Alex Mercer was the same except he hated it for many other reasons besides water.

But he was still quite familiar with what beaches were really like from the memories that he absorbed. It still doesn't mean that he'll voluntarily go to the beach for the sake of enjoying himself.

The Blacklight incarnate remained silent. Elizabeth must have taken this as a sign that he doesn't want to talk. So the two trudged on in awkward (for Elizabeth) and pleasant (for Alex) silence.

The two of them passed through a turnstile as they entered the building ahead, which turned out to be a large gift shop filled with souvenirs all based around Comstock.

"Mr. Mercer," the bioweapon heard Elizabeth call out to him as he was contemplating setting the store on fire. He turned to his charge and saw her looking at a large poster of Comstock in front of her.

"Comstock. I've read about him. They say that he can see the future," she said as she looked over the image, "I don't like his look."

"Do you dislike the look of the Prophet? Or his gaze?" the shop owner said intensely when he overheard what she said.

"Word of advice, kid," he whispered into her ear as he gently pushed her past the man, "Keep your opinions to yourself especially when it has something to do with seeing everyone's idol in a negative light."

When he was certain that shopkeeper was out of her eyesight, he sharply pushed the man's head back, effectively snapping the neck, with one hand while he kept the other on his charge's shoulder. The body of the clerk was quickly assimilated into him and didn't leave a trace of him left. This happened right before Elizabeth looked back to see where the snap came from.

Seeing nothing, Elizabeth shrugged and blamed it on her imagination as they slipped out of the store.

"_Stupid kid!"_ Alex mentally growled. She just _had_ to make a comment about Comstock that aroused the suspicion of someone who could possible expose the both of them.

Because of that, he saw that it would be prudent to kill the man to maintain their cover and consuming him was the only way to leave no trace.

They made their way down a row of booths. At the end stood were two people who the bioweapon still didn't trust.

"Hello again, Dr. Mercer," Rosalind said.

"Doctor?" Elizabeth shot him a look of confusion when she heard the woman refer to him as 'Dr. Mercer'.

"Can we assume that your journey has been enlightening, Zeus?" Robert asked.

"You can 'cause it's been like…" Alex checked his internal clock, "twenty minutes since our last chat."

"Mr. Mercer, do you know these people?" Elizabeth asked, confused about the confrontation, "And why did they call you Dr. Mercer and Zeus?"

"None of your business," he scowled. He hated it when people refer to him as doctor or Zeus. Zeus made him remember the Outbreak and Blackwatch chasing after him around the country. Doctor reminded him too much of the original Alex Mercer, the man who caused the Outbreak and his creation.

"All pleasantries aside, we have a matter that needs to be handled," Rosalind said as she and her brother both pulled out red velvet pillows with jewelry boxes of the same size, shape and color sitting on them.

"A choice for the lady," her brother continued as they opened the boxes, revealing two identical pendants placed on silk chokers. The pendants bore the same symbols that had been on the key that helped them escape from the tower. One had the image of a cage while the other one had an image of a bird.

"Which will you choose?" Rosalind asked, "The bird?"

"Or the cage?" Robert finished.

"They both look so beautiful," she said as she picked up the two cases before turning to Alex and showed them to him, "Which one do you think I should choose?"

"Why the hell are you asking me?" the bioweapon inquired, wondering if this girl was for real.

The girl merely gave him an expectant look in response.

Sighing, he decided to just get it over with.

"Ini mini miny moe."

He finger landed on the pendant with the cage on it.

"The cage," he said.

"I expected the bird," Rosalind said as she and her twin bowed to them and left.

"I love it!" Elizabeth said after fixing the silk choker in place, making the viral monster take his eyes off of the twins.

"How does it look?" she asked as she touched the pendant lightly.

Alex had to acknowledge that she does look kind of cute and the pendant was certainly helping but he wasn't going to say that out loud. He's just not that kind of guy er virus.

"Meh," he just shrugged, causing the girl to frown at him.

Elizabeth's glaring was interrupted when they heard people panicking. They saw everyone staring in horror at what was left of the monument tower as it came out of the clouds.

"My god…look," Elizabeth said in a low voice with her hands clasped in front of her.

And look he did. The creature must have vast amount of strength to be able to accomplish destruction on that scale. But it paled in comparison to the damage that he caused back in Manhattan

"It was my home," she replied as more people started to gather around. Some of them were in tears while others were on their knees and in prayer from seeing the ruins of Monument Island.

"I've seen worse," he said as he lead her out of the crown and into the nearby building, which had been the station, leading to the First Lady Airship.

But the way inside the station was barricaded by a police blockade. Anyone that wanted to get through had to be thoroughly examined before they were allowed to enter.

Alex could effortlessly bypass the blockade by assuming a military disguise but he wasn't sure how he could get his burden-sorry-_charge_ through without causing an alert.

Killing the policemen wouldn't work either because the kid might get hurt or killed. For Dana's sake rather than Elizabeth's, he didn't want that happen.

He almost didn't notice the girl go down a side hallway. He followed after her and saw another obstacle in the form of a locked door.

As Alex was about to go break the lock off the door, Elizabeth moved ahead as she reached into her hair and pulled out a pin before tinkering with the lock.

"What are you doing?" he asked, not sure what she was trying to do.

"What does it look like, you being a roguish type and all?" she replied.

He opened his mouth to resent that but he thought better of it, considering that she was right.

He heard a low clinking noise as the lock fell away from the door.

"Where did you learn how to pick locks?" he asked as they went through the opening and shut the doors behind.

"Well, being trapped in a tower with nothing but books and spare time to pick up a couple of hobbies. You'd be surprise with what I know how to do," the girl said as they went down the empty hallway.

"_You would be more than surprised with what I can do," _he thought in amusement. He could do pretty much anything from something menial like chores to piloting gunships like a pro. If there were something that he didn't know how to do, he would simply consume someone who does know.

They navigated the back hallways of the station. The bioweapon and his young charge were trying to find a way that would help them get to the airship. When they turned another corner, Alex saw two people that he never though he would see again. They were the same interracial couple that had been at the raffle when he had been exposed as the False Shepard.

"Hey mister, we'd like to help you," said the African woman standing next to her husband.

He didn't spare them a second glance as walked past them. He heard Elizabeth calling him as he left the room. He felt a hand on his shoulder and quickly turned around to face the owner of said appendage.

"What?" he nearly snarled.

"What was that for?" she demanded, unperturbed or unaware of his bad mood, "They just wanted to thank you for helping them. There's no need to be rude."

"I don't need or want their thanks," he brushed her statement aside.

"You're not a very nice person are you?"

"You're right about that but I'm your only chance to get you out of here."

The next room that they had entered was large and full of arcade games of all kinds and styles. Food vendors were set up here and there, selling snacks to customers as everyone enjoyed themselves.

He had to take off his hood again because some people were giving him looks like he was a pedophile. He noticed Elizabeth staring at him from the corner of his eye. She was trying and failing to be discrete.

"What?" he barked, making her realize that she was caught staring at him.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't expect you to be so…" she trailed off, a blush beginning to form on her face.

"_Oookaaay? What's up with her?"_ he thought, completely clueless of why she had that expression on her face.

"Why don't go eat some candy or something, kid?" he suggested as he looked around for potential threats.

A second later, Elizabeth was holding a stick of cotton candy in her hand.

He gawked at her in disbelief. Where the hell did that come from?

"It's really good!" she exclaimed, "And I'm not giving you any, Mr. Mercer."

"I hate sweet stuff."

"That explains why you're so grumpy all the time."

That and because of the countless consciousness of the people that he had consumed were constantly pounding on the insides of his head.

After finishing her cotton candy, they went to another turnstile that would take them to where they needed to go.

A woman in a grey uniform had been standing in front of the turnstile on the right when they approached. She turned and gave Elizabeth a strange look.

"Annabelle?" she asked after a moment.

"Excuse me?" Elizabeth asked, confused.

"Annabelle, it's me Esther! Don't you remember me?" the woman asked, thinking that she knew the younger woman.

"I'm sorry but I'm not Annabelle. My name is Elizabeth," she replied.

Esther tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at the two of them before smiling.

"Elizabeth? Well, isn't that a lovely name," she said before passing through the turnstile and walking off.

"That was odd," Elizabeth remarked while trying to wonder what that had been about as they went through the turnstile.

Alex chose to remain silent. The woman felt very suspicious if you asked him. He was almost compelled to consume this "Esther" right then and there to ease his paranoia.

"Last customer, park's closing Park's closing, everyone!" an officer by the stairs called out as he looked up at them from his spot against the wall.

"Hurry up, kid," Alex said as they moved a little faster up the steps. They entered the atrium where the ticket booth was set up for the airships. The Prototype noticed that the place had a couple of people in it that were just loitering around and speaking in hushed voices.

Numerous occasions of getting shot at made him feel that something was off so they needed to get onto that airship if they wanted to get out of Columbia.

"Two tickets for the First Lady airship," Alex said after ringing the bell.

The ticket booth operator was on the phone with his back to them as he talked to someone.

"Yeah, just a minute friend," the man replied before going back to talking with whoever was on the other end of the phone, "Yeah, I have it. How do you want to proceed?"

"Can you hurry the hell up already?" Alex said, getting annoyed and really wanting to punch something right now, "I don't have all fucking day."

"Mmmm hmmm," the man said as he kept speaking, "I got it. I'll ring you back once the matter's in hand. Send in the bird, we're ready to execute."

Alex was seriously considering starting a fight right about now. He would have done it done by now if they didn't need that damn airship to take them to New York.

"Let go of me!" he heard Elizabeth cry out. He quickly turned around to see a police officer trying to grab the girl.

"I got your tickets right here, _friend_!" he felt a blade stab through the back of his hand and pinned it the counter. He looked back to see the ticket booth operator grinning evilly at him.

Sighing, he pulled his hood back and casually dislodged the knife from his hand.

"You see, _this_," he held the hand that had been stabbed up. The blood drained out of the man's face as he witnessed the wound seal itself up, "Is why I'm so disappointed with you humans."

The man didn't have enough time to scream as a clawed hand wrapped around his skull and brought it crashing down on the counter hard enough to turn the head into mush.

After dispatching the man, the Prototype saw Elizabeth plant her knee into an officer's crotch, forcing him to release her before she turned to him. Her face changed into one of shock and horror as she saw the dead man at the counter and his claws.

Their eyes met. He could see the fear in her eyes that all humans showed when they see the real him. He could also see something else alongside the fear. It looked like…recognition?

The contact was broken as she turned around and ran out of the room. Not a moment too soon, everyone else drew a weapon and opened fire at Alex.

"I don't have time for this," he grumbled as he traded his claws for his Whipfist.

The bladed appendage extended itself as it swept across room and separated the upper bodies of soldiers from their lower.

With his normal hand, he scooped up a shotgun and began firing at any stragglers that the Whipfist missed.

"For the Prophet!" a familiar feminine voice screeched as shotgun pellets tore through his shoulder.

He spun around and fired. The man in front of Esther lost his head to the multitude of pellets. The policeman fell to the ground with only his lower jaw remaining. The bioweapon threw the spent firearm at the soldier beside Esther with enough force to send him crashing into the wall. Alex shot out his Whipfist at the woman and reeled her in towards him.

"I remember you. Esther, right?" he said to the woman as he held her up by the neck, "Well, isn't that a lovely name."

00000

_Web of Intrigue- Esther Mailer_

_Comstock: "Do you know why you are all here, child."_

_Esther Mailer: "Yes, I do, Father Comstock. We trained almost all whole lives for this. All we have to do now is wait for the False Shepard and the Lamb to arrive."_

_Comstock: "It is also imperative that you return my beloved Elizabeth to me unharmed."_

_Esther: "And if she dies?"_

_Comstock: "Then I don't know what would become of me if that were to happen. But I do know what would become of you and your men if the Lamb is killed."_

_Esther: *gulps*_

_Comstock: "But I have faith in the Lord and in you that you won't let that come to pass."_

_Esther: "O-of course. I uh don't know what say. I feel like I'm not worthy enough for such a praise coming from you."_

_Comstock: *chuckles* "It is alright, child."_

_Esther: I promise you, Father Comstock, I will not fail you!"_

_Comstock: "I know, child. I know."_

_Web of Intrigue-End_

00000

"Some prophet he is," Alex muttered as he broke the gate down. He walked down the corridor where his Hunter's Pulse showed him where the girl went, "He should've known that he was sending them to their deaths."

He reached the end of the station where the gondola was moored. His Hunter's Pulse told him that she was inside the gondola.

He found her struggling to work the lever but failing due to her feeble strength to push it into place. When she looked up and saw him in the doorway, she backed away from the controls and tried to put as much distance between them that the small room could allow.

Alex said nothing as he pulled the lever down.

Alex turned around and saw Elizabeth still pressed against the wall as if cornered by a dangerous predator.

"What are you?" she whispered, staring at his arms as if they were about to transform into claws at any moment.

"I'm complicated."


	5. The Crow

Disclaimer: I do not own [Prototype] or BioShock Infinite

Chapter 5

The gondola continued its way toward the airship station with a slow and steady pace.

"Oh my god. You killed them," Elizabeth murmured, still not fully believing what he did or what she saw, "You killed those people."

"Do I have to wait long for that to sink in yet?" Alex nonchalantly remarked.

"You killed all those people! They're all dead!" she yelled at him as she leaned up and shoved him as hard as she could, "YOU'RE A MONSTER!"

He barely felt the girl's attempt to push him but his jacket did get ruffled a bit. He was a bit miffed by that for he was quite fond of that jacket and it was part of his trademark look.

"Well, what did you expect was going to happen?" he inquired, straightening his coat, "Did you think they were just going to let you walk away? You saw how determined Songbird (still doesn't look like a bird to me) was to stop us from getting away."

"You," he pointed a finger at her, "Are an asset that people would _kill_ and _die_ to control. That is why they locked you up and watched you like some kind of zoo animal."

"They have deemed you too important to let you go," he continued with hands in his pockets, "And in their eyes, you belong to this city and you will stay here for the rest of your lonely little life."

His speech seemed to have produced something in Elizabeth. All of her fear and confusion was replaced by unyielding conviction and a hint of defiance.

Alex was almost impressed by her. Almost.

"What do…what do they want from me?" she asked after a while with her hand resting over her chest.

"The hell would I know," Alex said. At first, he thought that they wanted her for her powers but it didn't seem like that when he thought back to the siphon leeching off her abilities. He also noted that they were merely observing the girl and not actually experimenting on her from the lab notes he found in the tower.

"What happened back there," she said, "It's not the last of it, was it?"

"Not by a long shot, kid."

The gondola made its trip along the rails toward where the First Lady was docked. The control room was now quiet as the Prototype and the girl waited for it to stop.

"Mr. Mercer?" he heard his charge call out for him. He turned to Elizabeth who was looking at the floor and biting her lip.

"I-I need to know the truth," she said as she looked up at him with beseeching eyes, "Why did you come here? Why did you rescue me? Better yet, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?"

Silver blue orbs watched her from under his hood. The silence in the control room was almost deafening as the bioweapon contemplated on whether or not he should disclose the truth about him to the young woman.

"Trust me, kid. You're better off not knowing," he shook his head after coming to a decision.

"That's not a good enough answer!" she snapped at him.

His biomass visibly writhed at the notion that the girl could ask whatever she wanted from him and expect him to comply. His tendrils nearly shaped his arms into the claws that she mentioned but the clearly moving tentacles were enough to silence the girl as she stared at them in horror.

Thinking back on what he really was always made him like this. Despite that almost two years had passed, he hadn't come to terms with the truth of his existence.

He had started his quest with the intention of discovering the truth. After all the blood and death, he found it. He didn't like it and he wished the hell that he could forget it.

"You're better off not knowing, kid," he repeated with a little bit more control, "Because…I would've been better off not knowing the truth either."

"_Dammit!"_ he gritted his teeth. He hated showing weakness. It made him feel vulnerable. It made him feel _human_.

"Besides," he sighed, "Does it really matter as long as I take you to Paris?"

"If that's not enough for you," he added as the gondola came to a stop at the airship station. He reached for the door and pushed it wide open.

"Then you're free to test your luck to get out of Columbia on your own," he leaned against the wall with arms crossed. He lowered his head and allowed his hood to shroud his face in shadows, making him seem indifferent.

He wasn't really going to leave the girl alone. It was all just a ruse to convince her to drop the matter by facing the possibility that she had to fend for herself in a city where everyone was trying to capture her and face likely solitary confinement again.

Alex knew Elizabeth didn't have that big of a chance of succeeding on her own. And from the hesitant look on her face, he could guess that she knew that as well.

"Well?"

"Fine," she replied dejectedly, "But I still want answers after all of this is done."

"No promises," he pushed off the wall and walked out of the room with the girl following behind him.

"_Like a little lamb,"_ he thought in amusement. It appeared that the name: False Shepard had more distinction to it than he thought.

The two stepped off the transport and onto the island. Alex activated his thermal vision and scanned the area for nearby heat signatures. The only ones he found were a couple of birds and the young woman next to him.

They made their way up the step of the nearby building. The atmosphere was very tense between them and neither of them said a word to each other but it was just fine for Alex since it gave him an excuse to keep silent.

"Why?" Elizabeth spoke up, suddenly breaking the comfortable (for him anyway) silence.

"Why what?" Alex stopped in front of the turnstile leading inside.

"Why are you helping me?" she clarified, "I know we haven't known each other for long but I do know you care little about other people. So why? Why go through all this trouble just to help me?"

Why? Alex was going through all this shit for Dana.

Dana was the first (and most likely only) human to have accepted him despite what he was and what he could do. She was the first human that he relied on and she gave him a sense of purpose after waking up in a morgue with no memories. And to her, he was still and always will be her big brother.

It was a shame that he wasn't the real Alex Mercer to begin with.

The original Alex Mercer was a cold and calculating borderline sociopath who ignored his sister for years. He only bothered to get back in touch with her when he was in need of assistance. He didn't really deserve a loyal sister like Dana.

Neither did the bioweapon that was currently wearing her brother's face.

And that was why she didn't deserve to die or at the very least not because of a virus that he inadvertently released.

To wipe away the debt that he owed Dana, he must bring them the girl.

"That's none of your business," he growled, thoughts of his dying pseudo-sister riling him up.

"That's another thing I'm not supposed to know…" Elizabeth muttered. She was irritated by the lack of information that she was being provided. Without another word, they went inside the building.

The building turned out to be a museum with everything related to patriotism. The unusual partners soon realized that this place was meant to teach children the importance of serving their country and fellow man.

Alex saw through the façade and found that Comstock was using this place to sway the young children of Columbia to fight in his army and serve him. He felt disgusted with this knowledge and started to examine the rest of the room for the exit.

A bloodthirsty monster he may be but children was where he drew the line that he would also never cross. Even _he_ had standards.

The duo headed for the exit to the room when something sparked off in the corner. The power source that was keeping the doorway open flashed before giving off a small explosion and went dark.

The metal shutter above the doorway shook from its power supply suddenly being cut off and promptly slammed shut. With one hand, Alex's fingers dug into the crevice of the shutter and the floor. In a violent upward motion, the bioweapon pushed it up with enough force to keep it stuck there thus leaving the doorway open even without the use of the power source.

There was a long and very uncomfortable silence.

"What?" Alex demanded, when he saw that his companion was staring holes through him.

"How-how were you able to do that?" Elizabeth gawked at him, "That must've been really heavy for anyone to just lift it like that."

"I'm a lot stronger than I look," he replied and left it at that.

"What's a Shock Jockey?" Elizabeth asked as she looked at a poster that they walked by.

"It's a Vigor that lets you shoot electricity out of your ass," Alex answered, joking about the electricity coming out of the rear end.

"Ew," she grimaced in disgust, "Who wants a Vigor like that?"

"I was just kidding," he sighed (he's been doing that a lot lately), "It doesn't really come out of your ass."

"Oh, thank God," she breathed in relief as they left the building and found themselves in the middle of an amusement park, "I can't imagine shooting lightning from my a- rear end."

A loud humming was heard and the ground under them shook slightly as a large airship passed overhead towards a smaller island.

"Well, there's our airship," Alex said as they watched the ship head to the docks.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Elizabeth asked as they went down the boardwalk, passing a few other patrons enjoying the park and the people who were managing the place.

Elizabeth wanted to know more about her rescuer but every time she asked questions concerning his personal background, Mercer would respond with silence or "none of your business".

It was quite frustrating for the young woman since she knew next to nothing about him.

What she did know doesn't make him seem very trustworthy. He was rude, short-tempered and doesn't have much regard for other people. The fact that he had unnatural abilities and showed no hesitation in killing didn't help in raising her opinion of the man.

And she had a sneaking feeling that Mercer couldn't care less of what she thought of him.

They went past by a couple of people and they heard them talk in hush tones about what had happened to Monument Island. Most of them said that it was the work of the Vox Populi while some said that it was the False Shepard and his crusade against Comstock.

Alex Mercer smirked. Those humans were so close to the truth yet so far. It was no wonder why he didn't even have to try very hard to blend in. All he had to do was to pull down his hood and he would become just another face in the crowd.

"You know you look a lot more approachable without the hood covering your face," Elizabeth said, making him look her way as they walked, "Why do you keep it up all the time?"

Mercer wanted to say the young woman that it was none of her business but he figured that it was safe enough to answer the question since it didn't have much personal value.

"I keep it up to hide my eyes," he replied.

"How come?"

"Have you seen my eyes? They're not really normal if you haven't noticed."

The young woman conceded to that since he had a point. She shuddered as she recalled the first time she made eye contact with Mercer.

His silver-blue eyes were very unnerving. You can't help feeling that something was wrong about him when you stare into them.

After a few minutes, they reached the site where the gondola would take them to the airship dock. Pulling the lever, the power conduit next to it sputtered and went out like the one back in the museum.

"Shit! Just my luck," the Prototype grumbled, lightly kicking the conduit, "We have to get this piece of shit powered up again."

"What about the Shock Jockey Vigor?" Elizabeth suggested helpfully, "It looks like these power supplies run on the charge they give out."

That could work actually if it wasn't for the fact that he couldn't use Vigors for some reason. He already attempted to obtain the Shock Jockey by consuming a soldier that had it. The result wasn't the one that he wanted nor was it something that he wanted to experience again.

Numerous crystals with an electrical current running through them emerged from his body. A thousand volts or so then electrocuted him for a whole minute, burning off a huge chunk from his biomass in the process. He had to consume an entire squad of soldiers and a Guardian to replace the biomass that he lost.

It was safe to say that he was going to avoid consuming anyone that had the Shock Jockey Vigor from now on.

Alex couldn't use the Shock Jockey to get them across but there was someone with him who could.

"Let's find some Shock Jockey then," he said as he pointed at the sign, which said that the Vigor could be found at the Hall of Heroes, "But kid, you're going to be the one who has to take it."

"What? Why me?" Elizabeth tested incredulously, "Why not you?"

"My…condition doesn't allow Vigors to take effect in my body thus rendering them useless to me," he explained.

"I read something about that in a book," she frowned in thought, "But it was in a book about the Guardians and how they're made."

"So what does that have anything to do with your…abilities?" she looked up to him in confusion.

"It's a long, complicated and disturbing story," he answered.

"And it's also "none of my business", she finished, adding finger quotes for emphasis.

"Do you know which way to the Hall of Heroes?"

"I think it's this way," Elizabeth said as she pointed in the direction of a few buildings before they began to head there. Darkness began to settle in on the floating city. The sky became a dark purple, causing several streetlights on the island to turn on.

A gunship flew over the area with its PA system turned on as they went up the boardwalk toward the Hall of Heroes.

"Gentlemen, the False Shepard is loose in the streets of our fair city! Will you suffer the shame of allowing your wives and your daughters to fall prey to his machinations?"

"Can you believe this bullshit?" he whispered to his charge as he and Elizabeth moved a little faster so they weren't discovered.

"Or will you act? Act for your women fold! Act for your Prophet! ACT!" the man on the PA system announced before it shut down.

The duo reached the bottom of a small flight of stairs and saw a group of soldiers patrolling by the entrance. Mercer pulled Elizabeth down behind an empty vendor's booth.

"Stay here." It was not a request.

The young woman rolled her eyes at the Prototype's bossiness and then he suddenly vanished the moment she took her eyes off him.

Before she could look around for him, she heard someone shout, "It's him! It's the False Shepard in disguise!"

A large stream of gunfire then followed up the shout. She watched from behind cover the accused soldier being shot down by his own comrades. The man's bullet-riddled corpse hit the ground as the barrage ceased.

"Is it over?" one of the men asked, rifles still aimed at the body lying motionlessly on the ground, "Is it finally dead?"

"Not quite," another man replied before turning his gun on the others. He shot two of them right between their eyes before they had the chance to retaliate.

"Are you out of your-Kagh!" the last soldier tried to yell out but was cut off when the man pulled out his pistol and shoved the barrel into the survivor's mouth, shutting him up.

Red and black tendrils coiled around the traitor's body with an unnerving skittering sound. When they faded back into his skin, Alex Mercer stood in the man's place. Elizabeth and the soldier just stared at him, wide-eyed.

"Now it's over," he said, squeezing the trigger.

"For you anyway," Alex gazed at the man's lifeless body fall to the ground like it was a passing thought, something not worth mentioning or remembering.

All civilians in the area fled the moment Mercer pointed at his hapless victim and accused him of being the False Shepard in disguise. So besides the girl, there was no one else to witness this happening.

"What-how?" the girl stammered, making him roll his eyes, "You were-and he was-and then, then-"

"Long story short," he spoke up, "Not only can I transform my arms into claws but I can also change my appearance."

"But _how_?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," he smirked before making his way towards the building.

Still in shock at what she saw, Elizabeth stared at his back for a few moments. Shaking her head, she trailed after him.

"Hall of Heroes closed until further notice," Elizabeth read a nearby sign as they got into the elevator.

"Good. That makes things easier for me," Alex replied as he pressed the button of the elevator. The lift doors closed and it began to ascend to the proper floor.

"It still doesn't look like a bird to me," the Prototype muttered when he saw a poster of the Songbird on the wall.

"It's still his name," Elizabeth said, following his line of sight.

"But why would someone name it Songbird if it looks nothing like a bird."

"He did at first," she admitted, "But over the years, he started to…change."

Before Mercer could ask for further clarification, the elevator shook and came to a stop.

"This is why I hate elevators," the bioweapon groaned.

"What was that? Is something wrong?" she asked as the lights flickered.

"Most likely a blown circuit. Nothing I can't fix," he said as he opened up a conveniently placed fuse box and looked over the interior. It was a little different than the circuit breakers back in his time, but it probably had the same basic principle to it.

While he was going through each fuse to see which one would help them get going again, he heard Elizabeth let out a small scream when a soft buzzing sound was heard in the room.

He simply ignored her and focused on fixing the circuit breakers.

"A bee!" she exclaimed as she swat the air at the offending insect, "I hate those things!"

Seriously!? A fucking bee!? That was getting her all worked up about!

The viral monster sent out a small tendril from his shoulder to snatch the insect from the air much like how a frog catches insect with their tongue.

He found the damaged fuse and swapped it out with a spare, causing the elevator to come back to life and continue its way up.

When the doors to the elevator opened, they immediately saw why the place was closed down.

It looked a war happened here recently. The whole place was trashed with blood and bullet holes covering most surfaces. Empty boxes of guns and ammunitions were scattered amongst damaged furniture and statues had been knocked down and damaged.

"What happened here?" Elizabeth asked as they made their way out of the hall.

"It looks like someone fought hard," Alex said as he rolled one of the dead bodies up with his foot, "But not hard enough."

They entered the next corridor where they found a locked door. His charge advanced to the door and started to pick the lock.

He could've easily snapped the lock off if he wanted to but he figured that he should let the girl pick it for him at least so she wouldn't feel completely useless.

The lock fell away and the door opened up, allowing them into a wide-open area with a bar on one side and a shop on the other. In the center of the two buildings was a group of soldiers that had gathered with their leader giving a speech.

"Stay put while I deal with these assholes," Mercer told her as he transformed his arms into claws.

"It's going to be _really_ messy so you might want to look away," he warned as he moved out of cover and went down the steps into the open.

"Now, I know you've all come to think of Slate as some kind of war hero, but he's a traitor to the Prophet! He and his troops have thrown themselves in with the Vox, and it's up to us from preventing Slate's forces from joining…" the squad leader stopped in mid-speech when he saw Alex Mercer walking towards them with his claws out.

"Sonovabitch! It's him! It's the False Shepard!" he shouted, making all of his men turn around and bring out their weapons. Some soldiers, including the leader showed the signs of Vigor powers being manifested.

"It looks like you caught me, officer," he called out, raising his claws into the air in mock defeat. The grin on his face was so wide that it almost threatened to split his face apart.

He drove a claw into the ground. Unbeknownst to any spectator, biomass was burrowing below the ground until it reached its destination. Black and red spikes emerged from below, impaling a handful of soldiers. The impaled soldiers flailed helplessly in agony for a few seconds before the spikes receded back into the ground, leaving gory pieces behind.

Bring the biomass back into his body, Alex removed his claw from the ground and pounced at the remaining soldiers like a wild animal.

The next moment was full of claws slashing and bloodied body parts flying everywhere. Even with their guns and Vigors, they were no match for the Monster of Manhattan.

And Elizabeth couldn't look away even if she wanted to, which she did very badly. Her eyes were practically glued to the slaughter and she was both appalled and fascinated by it.

Mercer effortlessly tore through countless soldiers. He easily evaded the Vigor powers that were sent his way while bullets appeared to be only a minor annoyance to him. It was like watching a wild animal on a unstoppable rampage with the way that he kept hacking and slashing at every target in sight.

And in her hiding place, where she watched it all, she could no longer contain herself. Lurching forward and holding her stomach, she threw up the contents of her stomach.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Alex called out to her, using this opportunity to consume a soldier without her looking.

When she was done expelling her lunch, she looked up to see a murder of crows gathering together and forming a black-cloaked figure with a coffin strapped to his back.

"Look out, Mr. Mercer! A Crow!" Elizabeth shouted out to him from where she was hiding.

The bioweapon turned to face the aforementioned 'Crow' and saw the black-cloaked man wielding a sword.

"You don't look like a crow to me," Mercer said as he shifted his right arm into a massive blade.

In response, the Crow raised his hand and then suddenly a murder crows burst from the outstretched appendage.

"So _that's_ why you're called a Crow," he noted as the birds of prey flew towards him, "That actually makes more sense."

The bioweapon made no move to avoid the ravenous fowls as they converged upon his form. The moment that one of the crows made contact with his body, it was immediately absorbed into his skin. The same happened to the rest of the birds before they could fly away to evade his feeder tendrils.

"Is that it," he inquired the shell-shocked Crow. The Blacklight being changed his left arm into a normal hand and used it to brush off the feathers that clung onto his shoulder.

He sighed in disappointment after he consumed all of the birds. There wasn't anything special about these birds. They were just like any other bird and they had no special trait to their genetic code.

Then that meant he would have to consume the Crow to properly analyze his Vigor.

Mercer slid his blade on the ground, leaving a mark and also making sparks. Within a blink of an eye, he dashed forward and was bringing his blade down in an overhead swing. The Crow's form dispersed into birds and feathers at the last second. The organic blade crashed onto the ground, creating a deep gouge on it with the surrounding area cracking from the force of the blow.

He heard the whistling of his prey's sword as it sliced through the air. He quickly pulled his blade out of the ground and parried the blow with little effort. He tried to follow up the parry with a riposte but the Crow showed more skill in his swordsmanship by using the momentum of Alex's blade to divert its path.

They then entered a seemingly endless pattern. Whenever Alex attacks, the Crow would either deflect his blade or vanish in a swirl of feathers and then make a move for a counterattack. Whenever the Crow attacks, Mercer would simply block it and dodge it entirely.

Alex Mercer may not be a master swordsman despite having a blade for an arm but he was certainly no slouch at it. The Crow though was a better swordsman than he was and he knew that the only reason why he was able to keep up with the Vigor-user was his superior reflexes. Because of this, their fight looked like it would last all day.

But Mercer didn't have all day even though he was quite capable of fighting all day long due to never having the need to rest. He had to finish this soon but he was getting nowhere with his current tactic.

So that meant he would have to mix things up a little.

Alex twisted his body to evade a stab to his torso and he performed a small jump with his blade-arm raised up. Thinking that it was another aerial drop attack, the Crow jumped back to avoid the full brunt of the drop. But at the last second, the Prototype replaced his blade with a Hammerfist and brought his elbow slamming down onto the ground. The impact caused the whole island that they were on to shake, making everyone except for him stumble and lose their balance.

The Crow fell flat on his back and the bioweapon took advantage of this by quickly switching to Whipfist and making a Longshot Grab for the Vigor-user. The Crow was then tossed at an angle and was immediately ripped and reeled in.

Alex closed his eyes as he waited for the man's memories to sick in.

00000

_Web of Intrigue- Zealot of the Lady_

_Zealot of the Lady_: _"__And so, the Prophet led us into Peking, where we demonstrated to the Sodom Below the true mission our Founders had given us. And when the Mandarins and hypocrites of Washington betrayed him, our Prophet did not heel. He did not come crawling for their forgiveness... Like our fathers broke from the Great Apostate, our Prophet broke with these so-called "patriots"... and today is the day we celebrate the secession-"_

_Web of Intrigue- Interrupted_

00000

He pulled himself out of the Zealot's memories before he could see the whole thing. He didn't give a shit about all of that. He wanted information, not a fucking sermon!

There were some upsides to it though. He had successfully consumed a Vigor-user without any negative side effects.

On the downside, there still wasn't any DNA sample that he could use to access the Murder of Crows Vigor. The Crow tasted like his namesake. It was if he just ate a bunch of birds instead of a full grown man.

"You can come out now, kid!" he called out as he dismissed his Whipfist.

The young woman stood up slowly and tried to look anywhere except at the carnage, which was pretty hard to do since it was almost everywhere. She covered her mouth and nose to block out the intense smell of blood while she held her upset stomach with the other. She still looked a bit green from what she saw and it was a struggle to not vomit again.

"Um, are you…alright, kid?" he awkwardly queried. In spite of all the expert psychologists that he consumed, he was never good at comforting others because it wasn't his thing. He was better at breaking them both mentally and physically.

"I'll be fine," she groaned as they made their way to the Sky-line station, "At least I think I will."

"They've shut down the gondola access to the Hall of Heroes," his charge said as they looked for a way across, "Maybe because of what's going on with that man, Slate."

"Don't care. He's not our problem," Alex stated as he lifted the crates blocking the Sky-line and threw them off the platform.

"This is going to be fantastic!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she pulled out a second Sky-Hook from a crate and slipped it on.

"Wait, where's yours?" she searched his form for any sign of a Sky-Hook.

"Don't need one," he replied, changing his arm into his own version of a Sky-Hook.

This was probably the first time that Elizabeth looked at him in awe when he displayed this power.

"Is there anything that you can't do?"

Let's see here: super-strength, super-speed, enhanced agility, superhuman endurance, shapeshifting, a healing factor, superhuman senses and a compound intellect. If you combine all these together, then there was almost nothing that he could do.

"I can't make you stop asking me stupid questions," he answered, earning a glare from the young woman.

"What?" he arched an eyebrow at her, "It's true, isn't it?"

"Let's just hurry up and go," he gestured to the Sky-line, getting an eager nod in return. The Prototype and the young woman stood at the edge of the platform before leaping up and latching onto the Sky-line where they quickly zipped off.

Reaching the end of the line, they jumped off the Sky-line and onto the ground outside the Hall of Heroes.

"That was so much fun!" Elizabeth exclaimed, beaming from the rush.

The two headed toward the end of the docking area of the smaller island when a gunshot disrupted the silence. Something impacted him in the face and sent him reeling back. He hit the ground with a thud, unable to see due to his head being blown up.

"Mr. Mercer!" he heard the girl calling out to him in fear and alarm but it sounded off like she was far away even though he could sense her kneeling next to him.

Did he already mention that he hated it when people shoot him in the face? If not, then he really fucking hated it when people shoot him in the face.


End file.
